The lost soul
by The Immortal Ootsutsuki
Summary: Harry Potter, The elder brother of Eric Potter "The Boy-Who-Lived", was betrayed by his family and "light" in the Chamber of secrets . After recovering from the betrayal, he will carve his way through ministry, "light" and "dark" factions to reach his goals. Alive potters, WBWL, Slytherin Harry, Powerful and "Grey" Harry. Pairings :- HP/DG/OFC/FD.
1. The Betrayal

1\. THE BETRAYAL

Disclaimer : I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N : Harry is 1 year older than Eric in this story. Charles and Dorea Potter did not die in the death eater raid on potter manor. In that raid reinforcements arrived very quickly, so the Potter manor was unharmed. In this fanfiction Instead of Lily and James Potter dying on the Halloween in 1981 Dorea Potter died. Both Eric and Harry received blood protection after her death. In fanfiction I am using the fact that ¼ soul remains with the recipient of the blood protection(soul doesn't fractures and makes a Horcrux, it's more like it gets copied) . Harry was sorted in Slytherin while Eric ic was sorted in Gryffindor . In Eric's first year, the Philosopher's stone was stolen so Dumbledore had to use a replica. Enough information for the moment! Enjoy and forgive me for any mistakes!.

* * *

In the dark and gloomy Chamber of Secrets, there was a body was crawling towards water. Many will wonder why someone was crawling on the floor. Well, his name is Harry Potter, the first son of James Charles Potter and Lily Potter nee Evans, as well as the brother to the famous Eric Potter, "The Boy Who Lived". On October 31, 1981, Lord Voldemort attacked the Potter residence at Godric's Hollow. The Potter residence was under the Fidelius Charm with Peter Pettigrew as their Secret Keeper. But Peter Pettigrew was also a Death Eater, so as soon as he received the position of Secret Keeper, he told Lord Voldemort the location of the Potter house. When Lord Voldemort attacked their home, Lily and James Potter were attending a Ministry ball and only Dorea Potter was at home to babysit the children. No one knows what happened in there, but the outcome was that Lord Voldemort was vanquished and Dorea Potter was killed. Both children were left mostly unharmed, with an 'L' shaped cut on the forehead of Eric while Harry had a lightning bolt shaped cut on his chest. The next day, Eric was hailed as "The Boy Who Lived" while Harry was forgotten.

'Damn, looks like my luck has run out. But I have to do this...' Thought Harry.

He reached forward and picked up a black diary. He tried to sit down but promptly fell and almost passed out due to pain. After a couple of failures he was successful in sitting down. He picked up the diary and thought about how he reached this situation.

* * *

-FLASHBACK-

 _Harry was moving towards the dungeons in deep thought. He was one of the main suspects in opening the Chamber of Secrets after being proven to be a Parselmouth during the dueling club. Today, a student had been taken to the Chamber, and due to his status as a Slytherin and a Parselmouth, he was once again made a prime suspect; even though he had been in the Great Hall when Ginny Weasley was taken._

 _'Looks like I am going to be made into a scapegoat for this whole Chamber debacle,' thought Harry._

 _"Harry!"_

 _His neck snapped towards the direction of the sound so quickly that he almost received a whiplash._

 _"Harry , thank Merlin we found you!" said Lily Potter. James Potter was standing beside her trying not to sneer at him, though it was a losing battle, and his sneer was getting more pronounced by the second._

 _Harry, on the other hand, was trying to say something but his mouth had stopped working and his brain was going trying to reboot itself. After getting himself under control, he thought about whether or not to kill these imposters. But he decided that they are not imposters, as everyone knows that his parents hate him, so no imposters would act like this. The Lily and James Potter he knows haven't called him son or called him by his name for about 5 years. And last time they were face to face, James Potter was using the Cruciatus curse on him for being sorted into Slytherin. And he hated them both for neglecting and abusing him. But even with all the hate in his heart, he couldn't help but try to gain their recognition and make them proud. And after hearing Lily Potter call him by his name, he couldn't stop the tears from gathering in his had stopped calling him by his name or 'son' years_ _ago._

 _"Yes mum, do you need anything?" asked Harry._

 _James and Lily Potter exchanged a look and James moved forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Son, I know that we neglected you in past and said hurtful words to you after your sorting in Slytherin. We are very sorry for that, but you are still family. And I hope you consider us family too."_

 _"Why did you change your mind? The last time you talked to me was when you were using Cruciatus curse on me," asked a suspicious Harry._

 _"We were looking at our past actions and decided that we made a huge mistake by neglecting you. So we decided that we will try to mend the bridge between you and us. Believe me, Harry, I am very sorry. Please forgive me, son."_ _Lily Potter begged._

 _Harry started crying and his heart was beating at a very fast pace with joy after finally being accepted into the family. Whatever hate and resentment that he had for his parents was suppressed by the love he felt for them after they apologized to him._

 _"It's okay dad, mum, I will always consider you as family," said a very emotional Harry._

 _James Potter had to work extra hard to use his Occlumency to suppress the sneer on his face. Then Lily Potter started crying and mumbling about having_ _only one son at a time and cursing fate for being so unfair. Harry was only able to pick up the words "Eric" , "chamber" and "die" . It didn't take very long to him to come to the conclusion that Eric had gone into or was going into the Chamber of Secrets. Even if he hated Eric, he was not going to let him die after finally being accepted into the family._

 _"Dad, what happened to Eric? Is he alright?" asked a very concerned Harry._

 _"He is alright, son, but he has sworn on his life and magic that he will enter and save Ginny. But only a Parselmouth can enter the Chamber, and sadly, he is not a Parselmouth. He is going to die as soon as Ginny dies." James explained. Then he too, started to cry about Eric having to die due to his foolishness._

 _If Harry was in his right state of mind he would have been able to connect the dots and come to the conclusion that they were lying. The timing of this whole situation was very inconvenient. And there was no way Eric would have made such a vow to save his fangirl. It was also strange that James and Lily Potter were spending time with him, their hated Slytherin son, instead of their beloved son. But sadly, after reaching his lifelong dream of being called "son" by his mother and father and being accepted into the family, he was not thinking clearly._

 _"Don't worry dad, I am a Parselmouth and I should be able to open the Chamber. I will help him to fulfil his vow. Do you know where I can find Eric? We don't have much time," questioned Harry._

 _"Yes yes, we don't have much time. Meet Eric in 30 minutes at the second floor girl's bathroom. Go, boy, go! What are you still doing here!?" James shouted._

 _Harry was momentarily stunned by the change in his father's attitude and then thought that it was due to Eric being in danger. He ran towards the dungeons, and when he reached the Common Room gate he gave the password and ran towards his room._

* * *

 _In Slytherin, all second years and above have the choice to live in the dorms or have their own rooms. The social standing in the House can be seen by the state of one's room. At the moment, Alistair Crow was the unofficial leader of Slytherin. His room was the most expanded and luxurious room in Slytherin. Even though he is from a minor Pureblood family, he is bribed a lot to help in solving intrahouse matters. This year, Draco Malfoy bribed Alistair with an expensive carpet and couch for getting him onto the Slytherin Quidditch team._

 _Harry's room consisted of a comfortable bed, a couch, a study table in a corner, and a small bookshelf. Overall, his room lacked any extravagant decorations but gave a homely feeling. Harry quickly collected the things he thought were necessary for his trip to the Chamber. He took a healing and pain relief potion that he had nicked from the hospital cupboard. He also took his invisibility cloak that his grandfather had bought him. His mind wandered towards his grandfather, Charles Potter._

 _His grandfather was the person he loved and respected the most in his life. Ever since his parents started neglecting him after Eric was named "The Boy Who Lived" , his grandfather took it upon himself to raise him. After the death of his grandmother, Dorea Potter nee Black, on that fateful day, his grandfather's health started to deteriorate. Charles lost his will to live but after seeing James neglecting Harry, his grandfather decided that he would not die before raising him and a giving House Potter a proper heir; he wouldn't let Dorea's sacrifice go to waste. According to the doctors his grandfather wouldn't live for more than 3 more years._

 _He stopped his daydreaming and decided to concentrate on the current situation. He decided that he had all things he would need in the Chamber of Secrets. He put all the things in a backpack and put it on, but as he was about to open the gate, a stray thought struck him. He quickly put the backpack on the bed and locked his room and quickly put up a proximity sensor ward. He pushed his bed to the side and started to tap a sequence on the stone floor. After about 20 taps, there was a low clicking sound and he pushed a stone to the side._

 _This secret storage was the work of more than 15 hours of visiting libraries and reading different tomes related to secret storages. In the storage there was a blood red stone sitting on a silk cloth. Harry was momentarily stunned by the beauty of stone and then shook his head to clear his thoughts. No matter how many times he saw the stone, he was always stunned by the beauty of it. Harry placed the stone in the lower pocket of his robe. It was charmed to be invisible to others and was protected by a password in Parseltongue. He was taking the stone with him because of its healing properties. He still laughed sometimes after remembering how he unknowingly stole the stone._

 _Last year, he had been planning to take revenge on Dumbledore for ruining his childhood by encouraging his parents to neglect him, by saying that Eric needed all the love he could get; going as far as to suggest dropping him off at the Dursleys. It was thanks to the timely intervention of his grandfather that saved him from it. When he reached the front of the mirror after passing all the traps-which were ridiculously easy-he thought that the mirror was the item Dumbledore was hiding, so he quickly shrank it. It almost drained him to shrink the mirror, which confirmed his theory that the mirror was the item that Dumbledore was hiding. He decided to show the mirror to his grandfather and ask him about it. He went to the Potter manor using Snape's floo. When he showed the mirror to his grandfather, he had tears in his eyes after looking at it. He explained that the mirror showed people their deepest desires. When Harry looked in the mirror, he saw his parents looking at him with love and pride in their , his reflection put a blood red stone in his pocket, which he had somehow missed. Just like his reflection, he felt a weight in his pocket, and when he pulled it out of his pocket in the plain view of his grandfather, a gasp escaped from the lips of his grandfather._

 _This had led to a lengthy discussion about the stone. Charles explained to him that the only way the Flamels would part with the stone was if they were dead. His grandfather also refused to take a dose of the elixir of life, saying that he refused to let his wife wait any more in afterlife. It was decided that the best place to hide it would be in plain sight._

 _The proximity ward alerted him that someone was coming. He quickly put everything in place. There was a knock on the door._

 _"Come in," called Harry._

 _The door opened and revealed Daphne Greengrass, the ice queen of Slytherin, in all her stunning glory. It was a common occurrence, as Daphne was a regular visitor to his room. She used his room as an escape from all the leering boys and the useless gossiping of girls. She was his only true friend in the Slytherin house. She had dirty blonde hair and stunning blue eyes and a nice figure, even at the age of 13. His 3rd year fellow Slytherin was one of the most wanted girls in the school. She had started using her ice queen mask and coldly rejected all the advances made on her from the start of the term. She even cursed a Ravenclaw 5th year with some type of dick freezing and shrinking curse when he tried to grope her ass. After that incident, the male population maintained their distance from her, with the exception of Harry. People still thought of her as a forbidden fruit and were betting on who would get to taste it first._

 _"Hello, Daph." greeted Harry._

 _Daphne entered his room and sat on the bed. She started looking around as if she were searching for something and then locked her eyes with his._

 _"What?" Snapped Harry, not liking the way she was looking at him._

 _"Don't be such a jerk, Potter." Daphne remarked. "You shouldn't be rude to your guests."_

 _Harry took a look at his watch and sighed. 'Eleven minutes left.'_

 _"What do you want, Daphne? I have to be somewhere in 10 minutes," said Harry._

 _"What are you going to do, Potter? Please tell me you are not going to try and rescue the Weaslette," a concerned Daphne questioned._

 _"How did you come to this conclusion, Daph? I am only going to meet with someone." Harry was stunned. How did she reach that conclusion? Unbeknownst to Harry, Daphne had watched the whole confrontation between him and his parents. She was very suspicious of their actions and was getting a very bad feeling about it._

 _"So you're not going into the Chamber of Secrets? And don't lie to me, Potter, or I will show you why the students are calling me ice queen," threatened Daphne, while twirling her wand._

 _Harry paled and started stuttering. "H..hold on, yes, I am going to the Chamber of Secrets. I am the only person who can open the Chamber."_

 _"No! I am not letting you go to the Chamber-you don't even like Weasleys. Why are you even going there? What if something happens to you down there?" demanded a very concerned Daphne._

 _Harry became speechless from her open concern about him. "Daph, I am not going there alone. I will have Eric with me. I will be alright, Daphne. Trust me on this, okay? I'll be back in one hour." Tried Harry._

 _"What?! You are going with that bastard? I won't allow you to go there alone with him."_

 _Harry placed a hand on her cheek and caressed her flawless skin. Daphne unconsciously leaned into his hand and snuggled in it._

 _"Daphne, I will be careful down there. I have to go now. I will be back in an hour," said Harry._

 _"Swear it."_

 _"Huh?"_

 _"I said, swear it that you will be careful down there and come back," ordered Daphne._

 _"Fine. If it helps you to let me go, then I, Harry James Potter, swear on my life and magic that I will be careful in the Chamber of Secrets and will come back alive; so I swear, so mote it be." There was a flash of light, showing the acceptance of the vow._

 _Suddenly, Daphne threw herself on him and kissed him on lips. Before he could kiss her back, she pulled away and winked at him._

 _"You will get more if you come back all right from that Chamber. And if you don't, I will castrate you." Daphne said with a sweet smile on her face, and was that an oni mask in background? Weird._

* * *

 _After that, everything passed in a blur, and when he reached the second floor bathroom, Eric was already there by himself. He explained that the professors and their mum and dad were trying to stop the Minister from closing Hogwarts. So only the two of them would be doing the rescue mission. When the two reached the main chamber after opening both doors of the Chamber, they found Ginny Weasley lying on the floor with a shadow of a 16 year boy standing over her. After the shadow gloated a bit, they found that the shade was of a 16 year old Tom Marvolo Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort. Luckily, the shade_ _was not strong enough to use a wand, so Eric quickly picked up the diary. But before they could do anything else, Tom called for Salazar Slytherin's basilisk. Eric almost fainted after hearing the sound of the basilisk. He tried to throw the diary and run away, but before he could do so, his leg slipped on the wet floor of Chamber and he fell down. There was a loud crack and blood started to pour from Eric's nose and fell onto the diary. Lord Voldemort's ghost suddenly started to become corporeal at very fast speed._

 _"Eric Potter, return my diary back to me, or I will kill you!" roared Tom Riddle._

 _Eric started to cry and threw the diary back at Tom Riddle's feet, saying "I don't want anything that's yours. Please, please, don't kill me." Suddenly, there was huge cry of pain from Eric, and some kind of black mist came out of his "L" shaped scar and flew into the diary._

 _Harry was momentarily distracted by the black mist and the basilisk used it as an opportunity to attack him. Harry accidentally turned around and saw the basilisk lunging at him. Yellow eyes locked with green eyes. Both Harry and the basilisk paused for a second and then Harry tried to dodge the basilisk. But the basilisk was very fast and one of its teeth sunk into his palm. There was a moment of silence in the Chamber and then there was a cry of pain from the shade_ _of Voldemort and it collapsed upon itself. The amount of magic released from the shadow was enough to knock Eric away from the basilisk. Harry, on the other hand, was suffering from pain worse than the Crucio James Potter had used on him 3 years ago._

 _After seeing that Tom Riddle's shadow was destroyed, the basilisk went back to its lair. Harry was whimpering from the pain of his body dissolving from the inside out due to basilisk venom. There was a cry from a phoenix and Fawkes flew into the chamber. Fawkes landed on Eric to check if he was all right, and cried on his lips. Two tears fell into Eric's mouth and after a few seconds, he started groaning. Then, Fawkes did the same thing to Ginny ._

 _Finally, Fawkes sat on Harry's hand and saw the wound. Fawkes was looking indecisive on whether or not to cry. Harry knew that the only proven cure to a basilisk's bite was phoenix tears. He was stunned by the phoenix's reluctance to heal him. He was in too much pain to speak properly, so he quickly opened the two vials he had brought with him and drank them. He was in too much pain to even complain about the horrible taste of the potions. He felt a bit of pain diminishing but he knew it would only be temporary._

 _"What happened, Fawkes? Don't you want to save me?" asked Harry. Fawkes bobbed his head up and down._

 _"Then, did Dumbledore order you not to save me?" Harry asked, even though he already knew the answer. Only a direct order from the master could stop a bonded phoenix from saving a "light" wizard like himself. Fawkes cried mournfully but still bobbed his head up and down. Suddenly, he started to cough up a lot of blood. Fawkes suddenly flew up onto his hand and cried a few drops of tears into the wound and then cried few drops into his mouth. He immediately felt relief. Then he started to laugh._

 _"Thank you for trying to make my death as painless as possible." Harry said. Fawkes continued to sing mournfully. Eric woke up at that moment. He stood up and went near to where Harry was lying._

 _"Looks like you are dying, Harry." Eric said with barely hidden glee._

 _"Yeah bro, looks like I will never be able to dine with the rest of my family," said Harry. Tears were falling freely for losing the chance to finally be one with his family and starting a relationship with Daphne._

 _Eric suddenly started to laugh and Harry was stunned by the joy in the laugh of his brother. Eric bent on his knees and explained, "Poor big brother wanting to be one with our family. Ha! As if we would allow you to be one of us, dark scum!" He kicked Harry in the stomach. Harry cried out in pain. Eric continued, "It was all part of the plan. Mom and dad crying in front of you was part of it too. You were never going to leave the Chamber alive."_

 _"But why? And what about me being the only one able to open the Chamber? What about your vow? What do they gain from killing me?" asked Harry. His emotions were in turmoil. He was unconsciously releasing a huge amount of magic in the air, making it even more saturated with magic._

 _"They lied. I never took any vow. And about being only one able to open the Chamber, well, I can do it too. 'Open.' Weird, I can only say 'open' in Parseltongue. After seeing some of our memories, Dumbledore decided that the diary was controlling Ginny, but the Minister and the public would have never believed it. Poor Ginny would have been sent to Azkaban. My parents could not let an innocent suffer, so they decided to sacrifice you for the Greater Good. I will once again be called a hero for protecting Ginny, while you will be called the dark brother. Come on Fawkes, let's go!"_

 _Fawkes gave Harry one last look and bowed his head, flying away while carrying both a still unconscious Ginny and a triumphant Eric out of the Chamber._

\- FLASHBACK END-

* * *

Suddenly, another thought hit him like a ton of bricks in the head and he forgot all about destroying the diary. He reached into his lower pocket and said "love". He pulled out the Philosopher's stone and thought about how he could get water for making the elixir. Finally, he decided that blood would have to do in the place of water. He poked his wound and blood started to ooze again in huge amounts. After placing the stone directly above his wound so that the blood would be in proper contact with the stone, he brought it towards his mouth. He forgot about the fact that the blood was mixed with phoenix tears and basilisk venom. Together with the Philosopher's stone, it formed the most powerful healing and purifying potion known to man. As he was placing it above his mouth, a lot of blood fell on the diary which he had placed on his lap. Even with the potion in his mouth he felt like he was going to die. He fell on the floor and his last coherent thoughts were, 'I don't want to die and I will live'. Suddenly, all the extra magic that had been saturating the air started to get sucked into the diary and into him. There was a huge golden flash and then he knew no more.

A/n : this is my first story so please follow and review. First chapter is a bit rushed and there is a lack of dialogues, the main reason of this is i really wanted to start the main story line. The next chapter of story will start after the end of 3rd year for eric or 4th year for harry. so i am skipping the whole POA as james potter is alive so sirius won't go to Azkaban and Pettigrew has no reason to go to the confusing things like the horcrux, Eric still able to speak open in parseltongue after getting the horcrux extracted, Reaction of students, and Basilisk will be explained in next chapter. DON'T FORGET TO DROP A REVIEW.


	2. Rebirth

2 . REBIRTH

"Speech"

'thought'

 _"parseltongue"_

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

* * *

Great Hall. (End of Harry's third year.)

The Great Hall was decorated in silver and green colours showing the victory of the Slytherin House in the House Cup. The Slytherin House, with 670 points, was on the top of the points chart. Ravenclaw was second with 625 points, Hufflepuff was third with 520 points, and Gryffindor was last with 485 points. This was the third consecutive victory for the Slytherin House.

The Great Hall was abuzz with rumors about the Chamber of Secrets. Students were pointing at Ginny Weasley and Eric Potter and whispering to their friends. The most common rumor about the Chamber of Secrets was that after Ginny Weasley was taken to the Chamber, Eric Potter went to his Slytherin brother to ask about it. There, Harry Potter revealed to Eric that he knew where the Chamber was and he could get them inside to rescue Ginny Weasley. Eric Potter, being the hero he is, immediately agreed and went to the Chamber of Secrets with Harry. In it, a fight occurred between both brothers and after Harry started getting overwhelmed, he ordered the basilisk to attack Eric. Eric Potter then killed the basilisk with the help of Fawkes, who had flown there to help them and again fought Harry to save Ginny. After some time, Harry Potter was defeated and the Chamber collapsed. Unknown to the students, this rumour was started by the Weasleys and the Potters. However, a lot of students didn't believe the rumor due to Harry's relation with different Houses. Also, a lot of students had seen him helping Muggleborns in the past.

Dumbledore stood from his chair and addressed the students with twinkling eyes and grandfatherly persona in place. "Another year has passed and everyone is waiting to go home. A lot of students who will leave today won't be coming back to study here again; they have my best wishes for a happy and prosperous life. So, I won't take a lot of your time but I feel it's necessary to reward those who have risked their lives for saving the school. For showing bravery and keeping a cool head in front of danger I award 150 points to Gryffindor. Eric Potter faced the monster of the Chamber of Secrets and killed it with the help of Fawkes and Ms. Weasley. And 50 points to Gryffindor for properly investigating and preparing a plan to kill the monster. Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Eric Potter had created the plan to kill the monster."

There was a moment of silence after Dumbledore distributed the points, and then there was a huge applause from the Gryffindor House as the rest of the three Houses politely clapped for them.

"Ah yes, there should be some changes in the decorations," and with a wave of Dumbledore's hand, the green and silver banners were replaced by red and gold. "Now start with the feast."

"Excuse me, Headmaster. Where is Harry Potter?" asked Alistair Crow from the Slytherin table. A lot of students were wondering about the same thing, so they turned towards Dumbledore for the answer.

Dumbledore heaved a weary sigh, and turned towards Alistair, his face showing nothing but sadness. "Harry Potter was responsible for releasing the monster into the school." There were a lot of gasps from the student body. "In the aftermath of the fight in Chamber of Secrets, the roof of the Chamber collapsed and he was buried underneath. His last words were for forgiveness, so please don't hold it against him." Dumbledore said.

"What was the monster, headmaster?" questioned a 6th year Ravenclaw.

"It was a Basilisk. Harry Potter was able to control it using his parseltongue ability," answered Dumbledore. He didn't like where this was going, this was the first time students were asking questions. Before he could tell them to start the feast, another student stood up. Upon seeing who the student was, he prayed that she didn't ask any questions about Harry.

Daphne Greengrass stood from her seat and spoke in her usual cold voice. "So you are telling us that Eric Potter, who is mediocre in DADA and is a second year, was able to defeat not only Harry Potter; who is a well known prodigy in DADA and Transfiguration, and a thousand year basilisk with only the help of a phoenix and a first year? I am a third year student and I don't even know any spells that could be more than an annoyance to a Basilisk, which can kill with its stare. And about Harry being a Heir of Slytherin, it's a well known fact that the Potters don't have any Slytherin ancestors. Ginny Weasley was taken into the Chamber of Secrets after breakfast and Harry Potter was in the library that day before lunch. I am sure Madam Pince will verify my statement."

Everyone turned towards Madam Pince who nodded her head and said,"Yes, Harry Potter was in the library the whole time that day before lunch with 5th year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs." Some of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff 5th years also nodded.

Dumbledore was cursing in his mind. If he didn't do something quickly, his whole plan would fall apart. But before he could interfere and end the discussion, Daphne spoke once again. "The point is, Headmaster, that the whole story has a lot of flaws. And the students who were in the Chamber are well known Slytherin haters. And everybody knows how much Eric Potter hates his older brother-the last time I saw Harry, he was going to the Chamber and his words were, "Even if I dislike Eric, I can't let him die; after all, he is my only brother." So I don't believe that Harry Potter was responsible for releasing the basilisk. Eric P-"

Whatever she was going to say was cut off when Dumbledore interrupted, "I know you were friends with Mr. Potter and the news of his death must have hit you hard. But the fact is that Harry Potter was responsible for the attacks on the students." Dumbledore knew the damage was already done and all he could do now was try to control it. A lot of students wouldn't believe the story now, and he could see the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff 5th years telling others about Harry being in the Library. He should have obliviated all of them when he had had the time. But everything happened so fast, and the Minister's visit in his office stopped him from doing so. Now, everything was falling apart. If this continued then Harry would be a hero and the students would suspect Eric for his death. He once again cursed in his mind when he saw Alistair standing up.

Alistair spoke,"Headmaster, Harry Potter was a Slytherin and we take care of each other. So after hearing what Greengrass said about him, I would like to hear a magical oath from Eric about Harry being responsible for ordering Salazar Slytherin's basilisk to attack students and that Eric had no hand in Harry Potter's death. And I am sure my fellow Slytherins will agree with me." There was a chorus of "yes" from the Slytherin House.

"There is no need for that, Mr. Crow. I fully trust Eric and there will be no more discussion on this topic," ordered Dumbledore.

"Headmaster, I insist. I don't want to suspect an innocent of murder. Once he takes the oath no one will suspect him and he will be the hero of this school," insisted Alistair. A lot of students were nodding their heads and looking at Eric Potter. Eric was very pale and looking at Dumbledore to get him out of this mess.

"I won't allow some slimy Slytherin to accuse my son of murder. How dare you?! He is 'The-Boy-Who-Lived'." Shouted James Potter. His face was red from anger.

"I know he is 'The-Boy-Who-Lived'. And I am not accusing him of murder. I just don't want to suspect him of it. And if he is innocent, then why is he not taking the oath?" Remarked Alistair coolly. James Potter looked like he had swallowed a lemon.

"Enough, Mr. Crow! I won't allow my students to talk like that with guests. Mr. Potter is here today because his son stopped the closing of Hogwarts and he has donated a lot of money to buy mandarake juice to aid the recovery of students who were suffering from the attacks," said Dumbledore.

"Come on, Eric. I don't want to hear one more word from these ungrateful students and get disrespected by them." Said a red-faced James, and he marched out of the Great Hall with Eric Potter on his heels.

"Eric didn't take the oath," said a loud voice. Malfoy was looking particularly smug today. "It means that either he had a hand in the death of Harry Potter or he lied about Harry Potter being responsible for releasing the basilisk, or possibly both." He was planning to milk it for all it was worth. He would turn all the Slytherins against Eric (not that anyone cared about him in the first place). Now the death of Harry Potter had opened a path for him to get to the top in Slytherin. He would take what was rightfully his: after all, he was a Malfoy and he should rule the Slytherin House just like his father did.

"Shut up, Malfoy! No one cares about the death of a slimy snake." Shouted Ron Weasley from the Gryffindor table with his mouth full, with bits of food flying from his mouth. The Gryffindors sitting near him moved away from him after seeing that. A lot of students from different Houses glared at Weasley for disrespecting a dead person.

Dumbledore, upon seeing people glaring at Ron, just sighed. His plan had fallen apart before he could do anything. This was the first time the students had asked questions in his entire 30 year career as Headmaster of the school. He glared at Daphne Greengrass, who was moving out of the Great Hall. She had destroyed his whole plan- portraits had reported seeing her talking with Alistair before the feast. But not everything was over, students would forget all about Harry Potter's death when they came back next year. He would give an article to the Daily Prophet about Eric's heroic rescue of Ginny Weasley from the Chamber of Secrets. The public would put Eric on an even higher pedestal. Yes, his chance to rally the students under Eric had fallen apart this year, but there would always be a next year.

Daphne Greengrass was sitting on her bed with a red flower in her hand. The flower was a gift from Harry. It was made of ice and charmed to show his health. Daphne sighed when she saw the state of the flower. It was slowly increasing in size, after almost totally melting. Daphne knew Harry was alright now and that he was recovering from the whole ordeal in the Chamber.

When she had heard the rumors in the morning, she had quickly run to her room to check the state of the flower. When she saw it was once again increasing in size after almost totally melting, she sighed in relief and then started planning to decrease the problems he would face once he returned. After a meeting with Alistair and some planning, everything was ready. And it all went according to plan in the Great Hall. Now when Harry returned, the whole school wouldn't be against him. She laid on her bed and started daydreaming about torturing Harry when he returned for giving her so much stress.

* * *

Harry's POV

When I regained consciousness, pain, my oldest friend, greeted me. My very blood seemed to be on fire. My heart was filled with molten lava. But it was nothing, nothing compared to my scar. It felt like it was ripped open and being dipped in acid. My eyes were blinded by a light so bright that it penetrated my eyelids and burned my eyes. I couldn't scream, for I had bitten my own tongue off. I did not know how long it had been. Hours, days, years? But it was long enough for me to realize that this pain was my reality. Oh, how I wished for it to end, for death. I could feel my body dissolving from the basilisk venom and being remade by the potion I drank before losing consciousness. The amount of magic that was inside me should have killed me, yet all I could feel was pain. I had read that a long exposure of the Cruciatus curse on a victim caused their minds to snap, yet nothing was happening to me, even though the pain I was feeling was worse than 10 Crucios. When it became unbearable, I lost consciousness.

Once again, I regained my consciousness, only to be greeted by pain. The pain that I felt when I was last conscious was nothing compared to what I was feeling at the moment. I could feel something inside me being torn in half. I could not feel any changes happening in my body, but that could be because I was in unbearable pain from getting something like my soul torn in half. My mouth was full of blood that was oozing from inside of my cheeks, which I had bitten sometime during my unconsciousness, so I could not scream due to fear of choking on my blood. There was a sudden feeling of emptiness inside me and the pain stopped: I knew whatever was being torn from me now not a part of me. Then the pain came back with a vengeance and I once again lost consciousness.

The next time I became conscious again, I immediately felt something was amiss. It took me sometime to realize that I was not in pain anymore. My whole body was aching and my throat was burning but the unbearable pain that I was feeling the last time I was I was awake was not there. I could feel my tongue in my mouth; somehow my tongue had grown back.

'Burning throat. Thirsty. Water'

"Here." I heard a gentle female voice. Someone gently lifted my head and pressed a goblet to my mouth. Cold water filled my mouth and I drank greedily.

"M-Madam Pomfrey?" I rasped.

"Not quite." I tried to open my eyes to see who was taking care of me but I was too weak to do so. I was feeling very tired and feeble. The last thought that came to my mind was, 'I am not dead'.

When I became conscious again, I was still feeling a bit tired but the aches in my body were gone. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that I was still in the Chamber of Secrets. I was lying on a bed not far from where I remembered falling unconscious. I could see a massive basilisk lying beneath Salazar Slytherin's statue. When I turned around, I saw a girl around my age standing and concentrating on writing on a piece of paper. Maybe it was trauma, because it took me few minutes to realize I was lying in the Chamber of Secrets beside a girl I didn't know.

"Who are you?" I rasped.

The girl looked up from her work and stared into my eyes. It was then I noticed that she was quite beautiful. She had long crimson hair that fell like a waterfall over her shoulders and reached all the way down to her thighs. Her creamy skin looked like it was softer than silk and her blue-green eyes were breathtakingly enchanting. Between her thin waist, wide hips, small but shapely butt, large breasts, silky looking skin, enchanting eyes, and a face that looked like it had been crafted by a pantheon of angels on a quest to find perfection; the girl was easily one of the most beautiful females I had ever seen.

She raised an eyebrow after seeing me checking her out but still replied, "I don't have a name."

Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow and say, "And I am a girl". Sarcasm was dripping from my every word. There was something strange going on here. I was not usually comfortable with a complete stranger. And even stranger, I felt like I could trust her with anything.

"Really, I never knew," she mocked, while looking at my crotch. It was then I realized that someone had changed my clothes. I was dressed in a white hospital gown. I glared at her with my face red with embarrassment.

"Okay, enough games. What have you drugged me with? I am never this comfortable with a complete stranger. And what is your name?" I asked after getting my embarrassment under control.

"Like I said, I don't have a name. And I have not drugged you with anything." Said the mystery girl.

"What do you mean by you don't have a name?" I questioned.

"What is the last thing you remember before falling unconscious for the first time, Harry?" Questioned the mystery girl.

"I remember a black mist flowing from Eric's scar to the diary. After that, Tom Riddle's shadow collapsed on itself. I remember the basilisk biting me and then Fawkes refusing to save my life. And how could I forget Eric's gloating about me being a sacrifice for the Greater Good." I said through gritted teeth. The mystery girl gave me a sympathetic smile.

"I think this will help you in understanding. And do you want to eat some basilisk meat?" Asked the mystery girl.

"Yes. And what do you..." Before I could say anything more she reached forward and touched my forehead. My eyes rolled back into my head and I fell asleep.

I woke up to the smell of roasted meat filling my nose. I sat up on my bed and searched for the mystery girl. I found her roasting meat near the corner of the Chamber. When she saw that I was awake she brought two plates full of roasted basilisk meat. My stomach gave a loud growl upon seeing it.

"What do you want to do first? Talk or eat?" Asked the mystery girl.

I gave her a blank look which screamed, 'are you stupid'. We completed our food in silence. The meat was without any spice or salt. After completing our food, we sat in front of each other and started to gather our thoughts. Finally, after some minutes of silence, she asked, "So what is the theory that you came up with?"

I replied, "According to Tom Riddle's information on Soul magics and Horcruxes, I have reached the conclusion that Eric's scar was a Horcrux. I don't know how much soul it contained but when Eric shouted about returning everything that is Tom's, the soul piece used Eric's blood on the diary as a medium and got transported from the scar to the diary. According to Tom's notes any object cannot contain more than ½ of a person's soul. So the Horcrux got destabilized and Tom's shadow collapsed. The pain I felt when I was awake was my soul getting torn into two parts. But I still can't come to a theory about your creation."

She was silent for a moment and then replied, "You are correct about the whole Horcrux destabilization. From what I can tell, you dropped some of the mixture of elixir of life, your blood, phoenix tears, and basilisk venom on the unstable Horcrux. And after the resulting explosion, the extra bit of soul of Tom that destabilized the Horcrux in the first place was destroyed. And the rest of his soul was purified by the mixture. I still don't understand half of the things that happened, but the result is me. I currently possess ½ of Tom Riddle's soul while half of your soul is shared between us. Before you ask, it happened due to you being in contact with the Horcrux the whole time. My gender was decided by the copy of the soul of Dorea Potter that you and Eric had, which provided you blood protection."

It took me a few moments to digest the facts, and then I asked, "What else can you tell me about yourself?"

She replied, "I don't have a magical core. I share a connection with your magical core which allows me to use magic. My body is sustained by your magic, so if you are out of magic then my body will collapse and I will die. I can feel what you are feeling and I can't betray you. I can also share my knowledge with you and have already shared all of the 16 years of Tom Riddle's knowledge with you."

"Won't sharing my magic with you make me weak? How stable is your body? And what do you mean by you can't betray me?" I asked.

"Not really. You haven't noticed it yet, but according to my calculations, your magical core capacity has increased by 3 times. And you can always tell me to stop using your magic. My body is stable as long as you have magic. I can't betray you because I share half of your soul and my body is sustained by your magic." She explained.

"Alright. Now all we need is a name for you. Hmmm... What about Elena ?" I asked.

"What?"

"Oh, come on. I know you want to be called that."

"That doesn't mean you are allowed to call me that" She pouted.

"Then what should I call you? Milady?" I asked.

"You may call me Elena or Eli for short. " She replied in a haughty manner.

Then we both started to laugh. After getting our laughter under control, I asked a question that had been bugging me for a while, "Why did you kill the basilisk? And why didn't I die when I looked into its eyes?"

"I killed the basilisk because it wanted to eat you and wasn't obeying my orders when I ordered it to leave us alone in Parseltongue. And you didn't die because you are a Parselmouth." Replied Elena.

"Weird. Anyway, how much time has passed since I entered the Chamber?" I asked.

"Hmmm... I am not sure, maybe around 10 or 11 months." She replied. As if 10 or 11 months didn't mean a lot.

"What do you mean by 'I am not sure'? Haven't you gone out of the Chamber?" I asked.

"No, I am not able to move more than 300 feet away from you because I am bound to you by your magic. So I haven't gone out of the Chamber." Replied Elena.

"About 10 to 11 months, damn. I need to do a lot of work. I will have to take my end of the year exams at the Ministry if I want to attend the classes with my peers. With Tom Riddle's knowledge, exams should be a piece of cake. Hmmm... You need an identity. Goblins should be able to create one for you. But first I need to meet with my grandfather. He's probably worried sick about me." I started planning what I should do today but before I could do anything else, Elena stopped me from doing it.

"You won't be going anywhere in the near future," said Elena.

"Why?"

"You are not in the condition to go anywhere. Your body is still very weak." Replied Elena.

"I am fine. See?" I tried to stand up, only to fall on my face when my legs gave out.

"I told you so." Said a smirking Elena. She helped me stand up and conjured up a mirror to let me see myself. My appearance had really changed.

"Damn, I look hot!" I said.

"The mixture you drank dissolved your muscles and rebuilt them and it also removed anything that was not required, like extra fat. It also forced your body to grow quickly." Explained Elena.

I couldn't recognize my own reflection in the mirror. My height had increased from 5'3 to 5'10. My shoulders had broadened, and I could feel abs under my gown. My face had lost all its baby fat and my eyes were glowing. Overall, I looked like "a young man whom fathers of teenage daughters would shoot on sight".I turned and gave Elena a lopsided grin that had her blushing.

"Now all we need is to get you accustomed to your new body." Said Elena.

1 Month Later.

One month passed in a blur. Harry had to run 20 times from one side of the Chamber to the other and had to do 100 sit-ups and push-ups 3 times a day. On the 7th day of training, Elena started throwing stinging hexes at him, but when they hit him, they just got absorbed into his body. Elena theorized that she was basically using his magic, so she couldn't harm him. Elena and Harry had gotten close as the days had passed. Her main fear was that she was bound to Tom Riddle just like she was bound to him, since she was a Horcrux. But one Horcrux revealing charm later, that misconception was cleared. Today, Harry was going to see his grandfather.

"Come on, Elena. Let's go." Said Harry.

"Alright. Let's go." Said Elena. Elena took hold of one of his arms and they apparated to a place near the Potter Manor. They had transfigured their clothes into dark green robes with a hood that was charmed to keep their faces hidden.

"Mipsy," called Harry.

A house elf popped out near them and looked at them curiously. A second later, a huge smile appeared on her face and she latched onto his legs.

"Master Harry, you are alive!" Cried Mipsy.

"Yes Mipsy, I am alive. Now tell me, is anybody home?" Asked Harry.

"Yes, Master Charles is in his room, while your parents have gone out." Replied Mipsy. In the Potter Manor, all of the house elves were taught to properly speak English from a young age. So all of the house elves were able to hold a conversation in English with ease.

"Very well Mipsy, I am going to meet with my grandfather. Don't inform him, I want to surprise him." Said Harry in a low voice. "And inform me as soon as anyone else arrives."

The elf nodded her head and popped away, probably to inform the other house elves.

Harry and Elena passed through the wards, and because Elena had the blood and magic, the wards didn't stop them. In Potter Manor, photos of Eric were all over the walls while Harry didn't have a single photo. Elena was looking at the photos with disgust. Elena had a deep hatred for the Potters after he shared his memories of childhood with her; the exception being his grandfather and himself. After reaching his grandfather's room, he found that the door was unlocked. He slowly opened the door and entered the room. There, he found Charles sitting on his bed and staring at the ceiling. When Charles saw two cloaked figures entering his room, he quickly snatched his wand and shot a bone breaking hex at the intruders. Harry calmly raised his wand and produced a 'Protego' shield wordlessly. Before Charles could cast another curse, Harry spoke, "You are slow, grandfather." After hearing the voice of his grandson, Charles loosened his grip on his wand. Harry removed the hood from his face and went to hug his grandfather. But before he could move more than two steps, Charles pointed his wand once again at Harry.

"Tell me something that only Harry would know," demanded Charles. His voice was full of emotions but his face looked like it was set in stone.

"I showed you the Philosopher's Stone in this room." Replied Harry. Charles dropped his wand and quickly hugged Harry. Elena stayed by the door, not wanting to interfere with the meeting. After few moments, Charles looked at Elena and then at Harry, and asked, "Do you trust her?"

"With my life." Answered Harry. Elena felt a blush rising on her face and silently thanked god that no one was able to see it. Charles invited her into the room and locked it. All of them sat on the couches, with Harry and Elena sitting beside each other and Charles in front of them.

"There is no need to hide your face here, no one will be coming here," Charles said to Elena. Elena blushed after realizing that she still had her hood up and quickly pulled her hood down, while Harry snickered beside her.

Charles raised an eyebrow after seeing her face and turned towards Harry and said, "Good choice, dear grandson. I approve." Harry and Elena blushed beet red and sputtered denials. Then Charles' face turned serious and after sensing the mood, Harry and Elena also grew serious.

"Tell me everything." Ordered Charles.

"I will. But tell me, what did my parents tell you about me?" Harry spit the word "parents" as if it were a curse.

Charles raised an eyebrow after hearing the venom in his tone, but said nothing about it and spoke, "Last year, your parents came to me with Eric and told me how you had opened the Chamber of Secrets and terrorized the whole school; and how you ordered the basilisk to attack Muggleborns. They also told me how Ginny Weasley was kidnapped by you and you used her as a bait for Eric. Then they told me about your fight in the Chamber of Secrets, where Eric, Ginny Weasley, and Fawkes fought against you and the basilisk and defeated you. In the aftermath of the fight, the Chamber of Secrets collapsed and buried you. And apparently you begged for forgiveness before dying."

Harry and Elena stayed silent for a long time before Elena finally said, "I will enjoy killing them." Harry placed his hand on hers and gave a gentle squeeze to calm her down. Harry turned towards his grandfather and started telling him about what really happened that day. When he reached the point where Eric revealed the whole plan, Harry had to physically restrain his grandfather to stop him from going and cursing his parents. After Harry completed the story, all of them sat in silence for few minutes.

"You were foolish and acted without thinking. I taught you to be better than that." Charles shook his head in disappointment. After hearing his grandfather, Harry hung his head. "But everyone learns from mistakes, and I hope you will not do anything so foolish again." Charles gave Harry a small smile. Harry sighed in relief that his grandfather was not angry or disappointed in him.

"I understand, grandfather." Replied Harry.

"Do you know why your father hates you, Harry?" Asked Charles.

"James Potter is no father of mine." Snarled Harry. "And no, I don't know why he hates me. Before my 11th birthday, he always ignored me, but after my birthday, he started to insult and slap me. And after my Sorting, he sent a Howler stating that he had disowned me. When I returned home, he used the Cruciatus curse on me for being Sorted into Slytherin. That was the last time we spoke to each other before the whole Chamber of Secrets ordeal."

"James doesn't have the power to disown you: I am still Lord Potter and James is only my proxy on the Wizengamot. On Eric's birthday, he demanded that I make him my primary heir and Eric my secondary heir. I refused, saying that I have already chosen you as my primary heir and that I am not going to change my decision. After a small shouting match between us, he marched out of the room. And after your Sorting into Slytherin, he once again came to me demanding that I disown you for getting sorted in Slytherin. He said that you were becoming a Dark wizard because you were jealous of Eric. I once again refused after reminding him that his own mother was a Slytherin."

"So James and Lily Potter hate me because I am your heir." Stated Harry.

"Yes," agreed Charles. He shook his head sadly.

"What are you going to do now?" Asked Charles.

"We are going to Gringotts to create Elena's identity, and then we will go to get her a new wand. After that, we will return to the Chamber of Secrets." Answered Harry.

"Very well, wait here." Charles stood up and went to his study table and started writing a letter. After completing the letter, he sealed it with wax and pressed his lordship ring onto it. He then gave the letter to Harry and said, "Give this letter to Grimjaw, he will help you."

Harry stood up and hugged Charles after promising he would come again in a few days and they apparated to Diagon Alley.

People were scattered along the roads and the vibrant colors of the shops surrounded him at every turn. Shop owners stood everywhere, trying to get the people passing by to buy their products. Harry and Elena once again pulled their hoods up and started to move towards towards Gringotts. Diagon Alley was not very crowded, so they reached Gringotts very quickly.

At the door, they were stopped by two spear wielding guards. "Pull your hood down, human," growled a goblin, while pointing his spear at his chest. The other goblin had his spear pointed at his neck.

"I am not going to pull my hood down. There would be no point to me wearing a hood if I did since everyone would know who I am," said Harry.

"We can't allow you to enter with a hood up. So either pull your hood down or return." Said the second goblin.

"Why don't you both keep your spears pointed at him while I give this letter to Grimjaw? This way I won't try to do anything unsavory against the Goblin Nation." Said Elena.

"Very well. But don't try anything or we will kill him," threatened the first goblin. Elena quickly went towards the nearest goblin to ask for Grimjaw.

Five minutes later, an old goblin in a pinstripe suit came out and signaled for them to follow him. After a long walk and a lot of turns, they reached a large door with a plaque stating: "Grimjaw, Potter Accounts Manager". Inside the room, he found that Elena was already sitting there, and he took the seat beside her and pulled his hood down; then glaring at her for leaving him outside at spear points. She just stuck her tongue out at him.

Grimjaw cleared his throat and spoke, "Your grandfather has requested that you should be tested as a heir for the Most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin. I have called the account manager of the Slytherin House, and he should be here in few moments."

Harry first thought about stopping them from doing the test because there was no way he was a heir of Slytherin, but then remembered that his grandfather never did anything without reason. So he settled for waiting. After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door and another suit wearing goblin entered. He placed a small box on the table and greeted Harry, "Mr. Potter, my name is Barbcock, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Harry had to stifle a chuckle after hearing the name of the goblin. He replied, "The pleasure is all mine, Barbcock."

Barbcock said, "Now onto business: please place your hand on the box and tell us what you feel."

Harry placed a hand on the box and he immediately felt something humming from inside the box. Harry removed his hand from the top of the box and turned towards the goblin and said, "I could feel something humming inside the box."

"It seems that your grandfather was indeed correct, Mr. Potter." Replied Barbcock. He opened the box to show an heir ring. "You are the heir of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin."

Harry was stunned by the acknowledgment that he was the heir of Slytherin. Before he could say anything, Grimjaw pushed another box towards him and spoke. "Mr. Potter that's the Potter heir ring, please wear it too."

Harry put the rings on his ring and middle finger, and both rings adjusted to his size. He was still in shock about being the heir of Slytherin. He asked, "Do you know how I became the heir of Slytherin?"

Barbcock replied, "No Mr. Potter, we don't know how you became the heir of Slytherin. What else can we do for you?"

"I want you to create an identity for Elena." Answered Harry.

"Mr. Potter, it will take a lot of time and money to create a fool-proof identity for a person who is near you, because of your status." Answered Grimjaw without bothering to ask why she needed a new identity.

"How much money and time will it take?" Questioned Harry.

"It will take 6 months and Gringotts will charge you 800 Galleons." Answered Grimjaw.

"Take 1000 galleons from the Potter Vault and create it within 3 months." Said Harry.

Grimjaw and Barbcock shared a look and Grimjaw agreed. After giving the necessary details to the goblins, they pulled their hoods up and departed Gringotts. They quickly went to Ollivander's wand shop to get a wand for Elena. After entering the shop, they waited for Ollivander. After a few moments, Ollivander came out from inside his shop.

"Ah, good afternoon, Mr. Potter. I hope your wand is working well-Elder and Phoenix feather, 13 inches, nice and supple, excellent for both Light and Dark magic casting." Said Ollivander.

"Yes Mr. Ollivander, my wand is working well. My friend here needs a wand." Said Harry. He was not even a little surprised that the Wand Maker was able to tell his identity, even though Harry was under the hood. He had always thought of the Wand Maker as very creepy and somehow capable of recognizing magical signatures.

Ollivander raised an eyebrow after seeing the unusual age of his customer but didn't say anything. He asked Elena, "Which is your wand hand?"

"I am left-handed." Replied Elena.

Suddenly, the wand maker took out his wand and swore a magical secrecy oath about not sharing anything that he learned about them. Harry and Elena were stunned by the wand maker's actions.

"Now Mr. Potter, I have been selling wands for more than 80 years, but I have never seen such an unusual occurrence. I have never met two people who have the same magical signature. How did you achieve it?" Asked Ollivander.

After some thinking, Harry and Elena decided to share some facts with Ollivander, as Elena needed a wand. Harry told the wand maker about her creation; omitting the exact components of the potion and her dependence on his magic to survive. After hearing everything, Ollivander suggested that the best wand that she could use would be Harry's wand, but she could also use Dorea Potter's wand. Both of them thanked the wand maker but when they were leaving, Ollivander called them back and said, "Mr. Potter, I think the best course of action would be that you Obliviate me, only leaving the knowledge that 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' is alive. And Ms. Elena, are you trying to overcome the problem of the three hundred foot distance?" Asked Ollivander.

"Yes, I am trying to overcome it but I haven't reached anything conclusive," answered Elena.

"I think creating a secondary magical core should do the job, Ms. Elena. All you will need to do is to somehow bind yourself with Mr. Potter, other than his magic. Now Mr. Potter, please Obliviate me." Said Ollivander. Harry Obliviated Ollivander, then explained to him that he himself asked for the Obliviation due to sensitive information. They left the Wand Maker's shop and apparated back to the Chamber of Secrets.

Before Elena could go anywhere, he turned her around and asked, "What is bothering you? You were very quiet the whole time."

"I was just thinking about something. Don't worry about it."

"Very well, but if something is bothering you, then please share it with me." Said Harry.

"Okay." Said Elena. Suddenly, his Slytherin heir ring started pulsing and he heard a clicking and grinding sound behind him. He turned around and found that a snake statue had shifted from its place to reveal a door. Both Harry and Elena looked at each other and matching smirks appeared on their faces as they moved towards the door.

A/N: Thanks for reading and DON'T forget to drop a review. Facts like Harry being Slytherin heir and Elena's 300ft problems will be explained in next chapter. THANKS AGAIN FOR READING.


	3. The Chamber of Secrets

**3\. The Chamber Of Secrets**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

* * *

Harry and Elena entered the room and looked around. The room they entered was a large study. There were several statues inside the room, and from the looks of it, all were wizards. With a lot of bookshelves and trinkets, it quite reminded him of Dumbledore's office. There were a lot of doors on the remaining three sides of study. Both were snapped out of their observation by a voice, "At last, someone has found my humble abode again. Welcome, descendants, to the Chamber of Secrets."

Harry and Elena quickly turned towards the sound. With Harry's wand was in his hand, while Elena was cursing herself for coming into unknown territory unprepared. Harry quickly looked around, trying to find the source of the voice, but couldn't find it. However, an amused chuckle drew his attention towards the largest portrait in the room.

In the portrait, there was a man with dark black hair and emerald green eyes. He was wearing a green robe with silver trimmings and several snake designs, and all of them seemed to be moving around on the robe. As he looked at the face of the man, his eyes grew wide and his wand slacken in his hand .There was a resemblance of the large statue's face outside the room with his face and with what the man said in the beginning, this man was, without a doubt, Salazar Slytherin, the fourth founder of Hogwarts and his ancestor. He couldn't believe it. There was a portrait of Hogwart's founder, and no one knew. ' _T_ _hen again_ _,_ _this was in his own Chamber of Secrets'_. From the face Elena was making, it looked like she had reached the same conclusion.

Harry quickly bowed towards Salazar."I don't know what I was expecting when I entered this room, but meeting a portrait of a Hogwart's founder was, without a doubt, one of the last things in on my mind."

Slytherin gave an amused chuckle after hearing this. "You are the second person who has visited this chamber after my death, and I don't think it's fair that you know my name, and while I don't know your name yet. So I would like to know the name of my descendant, as well as the lovely lady accompanying you."

Harry realized that he hadn't introduced himself to Salazar and bowed, "I am sorry about not introducing myself. I am Harry James Potter Slytherin, Heir of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter and heir to the house of Slytherin. And the lovely and beautiful lady accompanying me is Elena Slytherin."

Elena struggled to get her blush under control and bowed to Slytherin. "It's an honor to meet you, even though you are just a portrait of your former self."

Slytherin gave a confused look to Harry. "Elena Slytherin? Is she my descendant too?"

Harry and Elena shared a look. After a few seconds, Harry turned towards Salazar and sighed "It's a long story, but no, she is not your descendant. Her case is a lot more complex."

Salazar, seeing that this was important, and from the looks of it, a huge secret, decided to drop the matter — for the moment. "I won't pressure you to tell me about it now, but I expect an explanation in the future. Now, tell me, why House of Slytherin doesn't have a title of Most Ancient and Noble House like Potter's? I don't think there were any Potters around when I was alive. So, Slytherin line is older than Potters and they should be called as such."

Harry was expecting this question and answered, "When the Ministry of Magic was founded, the house of Slytherin was declared extinct, as no member of House of Slytherin was present during its foundation and since no one ever came forward bearing the ring of lordship or heir's ring, it is still believed to be extinct. The Gaunts were known as your unofficial last descendants."

"What do you mean, the Gaunts were known as my last living descendants!?" shouted Slytherin. "They are the main reason my line was almost extinct."

Harry realized that this was a sensitive topic for the founder and decided to use caution when continuing, "The Gaunts claimed to be your last living descendants, and people believed it, mainly due to their Parseltongue ability, but the Wizengamot never acknowledged them as such, as they were not able to present the lordship ring."

Salazar looked quite put-off due to this news, so Harry decided to change the topic and asked the question that had been bugging him since he had been declared as Slytherin's heir by the goblins. "Do you know why I am your descendant? As far as I know, Potters don't have any connection to the Slytherin line, and my mother was a muggleborn."

Salazar looked at him intensely, and for the first time, Harry realized that the color of both his and Salazar's eyes was the same. Before he could ponder over it anymore, Salazar started to speak. "You will find the answer to your question over there."

Salazar pointed towards a corner of the room. Harry could see a study table and some chairs there.

* * *

Harry decided that Salazar would be an extremely important ally to him if he managed to convince the man to help him. But he needed to get him up to date regarding the events of the Wizarding world. With a plan forming in his head, he turned towards Elena. "Elena, can you get Salazar up to date regarding the events in the Wizarding world? I don't think Salazar had anyone tell him about what's going on outside this room."

Elena just nodded and started filling him in. Tom Riddle did a very thorough research about the events of past, so she had no problems in explaining the events to Salazar. Salazar kept listening to all the events with rapt attention. Even though he was a warrior, he was a scholar at heart and his thirst for knowledge hadn't diminished even after death. He was honestly amazed at what wizards have managed to achieve over the millennia, though the society has grown stagnant.

He was sad that his line was believed to be dead, but he was happy that someone was still alive and there was a huge chance that Slytherin house would manage to achieve its former glory.

What saddened him the most was the reputation history had given him and the reputation Slytherin house in Hogwarts has gained. To think history remembered him only as the darkest founder and a dark lord… yes, he had been interested in dark arts but he wanted to learn everything there was to learn, and he couldn't leave a branch as large as dark arts untouched.

And to think that people forgot about his other achievements in healing magic and spell crafting, hurt him more than he would like to admit.

The Slytherin house, which was his pride and joy in Hogwarts, had become nothing more than a house for pureblooded bigots to spread their bigotry. He hadn't wantedmuggleborns to study in Hogwarts, but never in his wildest dreams did he think that his thinking would make students of his house bigoted to this degree. He didn't want to invitemuggleborns in Hogwarts, because it increased the chances of getting discovered by mundane people, and thought that the pureblooded, though the word pureblood was not used at that time but he meant a child with at least one magical parent and the longer the line of his wizarding ancestors the better, wizards were better thanmuggleborns.

* * *

Meanwhile, Harry was going through the parchments spread on the table. Most of them were rubbish. After a while, he found a parchment with a letter written on it. Most of the letter was unreadable due to the poor condition of parchment, though he could read some paragraphs from it.

 _Most of my family is dead, due to my daughters' betrayal. I have already disowned her so that Gaunts don't get what they wanted._ _The_ _Slytherin name and fortune will always stay out of_ _the_ _hands of_ _the_ _Gaunts…_

… _..The only chance of_ _the_ _survival of_ _the_ _Slytherin line lies with my squib son, who is out of_ _the_ _reach of assassins hired by_ _the_ _Gaunts. I just hope that the line of_ _the g_ _reat Salazar Slytherin continues and one of my descendants reads this letter and takes revenge against the Gaunts if they are alive for this betrayal, though the chances of someone reading this are slim to none_ _._

 _A_ _broken man can hope. I am going to take this fight to the Gaunts and kill as many of them as I can before dying. I just hope I am able to kill my daughter before someone strikes me down…_

… _take revenge for the harm they have caused to us, Slytherins. And show them why we are feared. That is all I will ask you to do descendant….._

Harry had to wipe tears from his eyes. Though it wasn't much, he managed to gather that the author of this letter was the current head of Slytherin at that time. His daughter married someone from the House of Gaunt and then betrayed him for Slytherin fortune and name but her plan failed when he disowned her before he could be killed by the assassins hired by the Gaunts. He managed to send his squib son away from him, possibly to live with muggles, so that the line of Salazar Slytherin continued.

From this, Harry reached to the conclusion that Lily Evans was the descendant of the squib son, and because the magic gene was dormant for a long time she didn't gain any of its traits other than green eyes and good grasp on her magic, while with Harry, the Potter family magic provided the extra push that was needed for him to become the heir of Slytherin. He wasn't sure if his theory was correct, but he decided that he had a rough idea of his ancestry and didn't want any more time to spend thinking on this topic, when he had more important matters to attend, like his family, Dumbledore, and Voldemort.

He looked towards Salazar and Elena to see Salazar engrossed in Elena's history lesson. He stifled a chuckle when he saw that Slytherin shouted when Elena started telling him about Philosophers' stone. He had no doubt in his mind that Slytherin would deny that he ever acted as such. With a quick time spell, he saw that it was getting late and decided to call it a night.

"Elena, it is getting late. Let's go to bed for now," said Harry. Elena and Harry nodded to Salazar and started to walk towards the door. Elena also started to walk behind him.

"If you don't mind me asking, where are you going to sleep?" asked Salazar.

Harry, who had almost reached the door, turned towards Salazar with a confused look in his eyes. Seeing that Harry was not getting the point, Salazar decided to elaborate. "From what little Elena has told me about your current living arrangement, both of you are sleeping on a transfigured bed, and I don't want my descendant and heir to sleep on a transfigured bed."

"Yes, you are right. I am going to sleep on a transfigured bed in the outer chamber, as I don't want people to know that I am alive before I am ready."

Salazar nodded at his reasoning, "I understand that it's foolish to throw away your element of surprise. However, I am not going to just let you go and sleep outside. Did you forget that you are currently in my Chamber of Secrets? I used to live here in the last days of my life. This place contains almost everything a wizard needs to live peacefully."

Harry's eyes widened in realization at what Salazar was saying before his face broke into a massive grin. After sleeping on a transfigured bed for months, even though it was in no way uncomfortable, a real bed was very inviting. And hearing that this place contained everything he and Elena were going to need for living solved his problem for living arrangements , at least till he passed his NEWT's. Then a sudden thought struck him, "What about food?"

"Didn't you find it odd that even after millennia, this place didn't contain a speck of dust? This place is maintained by Hogwarts house elves. Before you ask, no, they can't reveal the location of this place, I made sure of that. So, if you need food then just call for a Hogwarts elf or your personal elf."

"Thank you, Salazar."

"It's the least I could do for my heir. Now, go and get some sleep. The door to the bedroom is the last one on the left."

Both of them nodded to Salazar and went to the room.

The bedroom was of average size, with a king sized bed in the middle of the room. The whole room was painted in silver and green colours. There was a large bookcase on one side of a room and a study table beside it. The whole room had a medieval look to it. The lighting in the room was provided by candles just like the hall. There were some fresh flowers in a flower pot near the head of the bed. ' _Looks like the house_ _elves changed them as soon as they Salazar invited us to stay here_ ,' thought Harry. Not giving anything anymore thought, he moved towards Elena and pecked her on the lips before saying good night and falling face first on the bed. He was asleep even before his face hit the pillow.

Elena, meanwhile, resembled a tomato. Harry had never shown her a lot of affection physically, though she knew he cared for her a lot. Even though She had all the memories of a sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle, but she was not very good at receiving complements or shows of affection. She thought about why, Harry kissed her for a bit, but decided that his mind was just too much tired to know what he was doing. Having so many serious conversations in a day took a toll on him.

Seeing that he didn't even bother to change into something more comfortable, she just sighed and pulled out Harry's wand from his pocket, and with a wave of the wand, vanished their robes. Now clad in just underwear, she climbed on the bed and cuddled into him. Harry unconsciously pulled her deeper into his embrace. Feeling all her worries that had come after their talk with Charles Potter, just slip away in Harry's embrace, she decided that she wouldn't worry over her own insecurities and continue to live and support Harry.

* * *

That next morning, Harry opened his eyes to find his vision blocked by a curtain of red hair. He gently removed the hair from his face with his hand and pried himself off from the vice like grip of Elena. Seeing her sleeping peacefully with a content smile on her face, but it changed into frown due to loss of his body heat beside her, brought a warm feeling into his heart. He knew what the feeling meant, but didn't want to acknowledge it yet. He still had feelings for Daphne and didn't want to complicate the whole matter unnecessarily. If someone asked him to choose between Elena and Daphne, he would kill the questioner or die trying, rather than choose between Daphne and Elena. Both of them had a special place in his heart and he wasn't going to choose one of them over the other.

He looked down at her body and was once again mesmerized by its perfection. Even after seeing it daily for months, he was still entranced by its beauty. In the beginning, his reaction was more than embarrassing, but after two months, he could control himself, so that he couldn't embarrass himself. Not wanting to be caught staring at her breasts, he quickly moved towards the bathroom to freshen up.

After hearing the click from the bathroom door, Elena opened her eyes. She knew Harry was staring at her, while she pretended to be asleep, and it was her guilty pleasure to be stared at by Harry. Deciding that she had spent enough time pretending to be asleep, she got up from the bed and moved towards the bathroom but stopped midway when she realized Harry was using it and opted to wait for Harry to come out.

* * *

After breakfast, both Harry and Elena moved out of the bedroom towards Salazar's portrait. They found Salazar waiting for them, a serious look on his face.

Salazar, seeing that both of them were present, told them to take a seat. Harry conjured up two chairs for them and sat. Salazar decided to just get it over with spoke up, "In my time, the portraits were not very famous and very few people even knew of it. I was one of those lucky few who managed to find a portrait maker and make their portraits. At the time, I didn't know what my future generations would create or what spells they would craft, and fearing that my knowledge would fall into the wrong hands, I crafted a spell that locked my knowledge within the portrait's mind. I cannot express to you in words how much I am regretting my actions and how sad I am at the prospect that I won't be able pass on my knowledge to you." Salazar closed his eyes in sadness and waited for the shouting that was sure to come, but he never expected to hear the chuckling from his descendant.

"You don't need to feel sad about it, Salazar," said Harry. "I am also sad about the loss of so much knowledge, but there is no use of crying over spilled milk. I will achieve greatness and have my revenge all by myself if I have to. So what if I won't be able to learn from you? I never expected to learn something from you when I entered this chamber yesterday, so it's not much of a loss for me."

Salazar smiled proudly. "Now, I never said I wouldn't be able to teach you anything. I will still be helping you in anything which you need any help. I just won't be able to give you the spells and rituals I had created."

Harry's face broke into a huge grin when he heard Salazar. He knew that with Salazar's help his plans would be accelerated. Even though the founder wouldn't be able to teach him his personal spells and rituals, he would be able to help him in creating new ones.

"I am going to gift you the result of my life's work. I had to add research throughout my entire life to create that ritual, and although it's not complete yet, I believe you will be able to complete it with the help of my notes."

Harry interrupted Salazar before he could continue. "I don't want to sound rude and ungrateful, but aren't you trusting us way too much? After all, we just met yesterday. You don't even know anything about Elena other than her name and that she is with me."

Salazar gave a very deep laugh after hearing Harry. After getting his laughter under control, he answered, "It is not that I trust you completely, but one thing I always followed was the motto of 'family first' and you are my last alive family member whom I could reach. I am going to help you as much as I can in reaching your goals. About the ritual I am gifting you, I was planning to make it a bloodline activity and would have done so if I had had some more weeks of time. Now, one of you go and fetch the parchments I have written the ritual on. It should be at the head table of the library, third door to your right."

Elena went to fetch the parchments, returning with them after a few minutes. These parchments were in excellent condition, unlike the parchments he read yesterday. Harry read the function of the ritual on the first page, then after rereading, it gave a thumbs up to Salazar before fainting. Elena hadn't read the function of the ritual yet, and once she did she joined Harry on the floor. Salazar, seeing their reaction, just chuckled; he knew the ritual was without a doubt one of its type.

After a few minutes, Harry regained consciousness and woke up Elena. All of them kept silent for a long time before Harry asked, "Have you tested the ritual?"

"Yes, I have tested it, but it needs some work in removing the unnecessary side effects," answered Salazar.

"Very well, you don't know how grateful I am to you after receiving this gift. I will try to bring our house back to its former glory in both Hogwarts and the wizarding world."

"You asked about Elena here yesterday. It's a long story, please listen to it patiently. Normally, I wouldn't have told you, but seeing that you are already dead and Elena, for some reason, wants you to know…" Harry then proceeded to tell Salazar what happened that day along with some history lessons about lord Voldemort.

After hearing the whole story, the founder was looking at Elena like she was some kind of angel. If one looked carefully, one could see tears in his eyes. "I spent my whole life searching answers for the mysteries of magic and miracles and knowledge, but to think I found the holy grail of all the magical miracles after my death. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought of an incident where a new life was formed by magic."

The all spent the next few hours discussing random events and topics. After eating lunch, all of them started to work on completing the ritual. Even with the vast knowledge they already had, they had to continuously ask Salazar about different components of the ritual. Once the ritual was complete, it would, no doubt, shake the wizarding world.

 **A.N: I am really sorry for not posting this earlier but I promise it won't happen again. This chapter was a lot longer but I decided to remove some parts of it as they were irrelevant. I have already started to write the next chapter and I will post it ASAP.**

 **Special Thanks to** fatestaynightdevilhero **for motivating me to finish this chapter. P.S : PM's will go a long way in forcing me to finish the next chapter faster.**

 **As u can see, I have decided to change the name of my OC from Victoire to Elena . I am sorry for any inconvenience it caused you. The reason for Elena'sbehaviours will be made clear in future chapters. I have also decided to avoid the usual, ' Salazar trains Harry'. He will be more of an advisor than a teacher. His limitation is that he can't exactly teach tell anyone spells but he can teach the way to craft it. The ritual will play a huge part in the story . What do you think the function of ritual is?**

 **If you find any mistakes please point it out in reviews or PM me.**

 **Betareader : Lythrica.**


	4. Calm Before The Storm

**4\. Calm Before The Storm**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

* * *

"This is the best opportunity you are going to get. The whole Ministry of Magic is busy organizing the Quidditch World Cup; with my influence, I can easily sneak you in and out of their building," said Charles Potter. Harry and Charles were currently sitting in the study room in Potter Manor. The rest of the Potter family were at Diagon Alley, and were going to spend their time after that with the Weasleys - so neither Charles nor Harry was worried about any unwanted surprises. Even so, House elves were keeping a close eye on all entry points of the manor to warn Harry if anyone returned home unexpectedly. The remaining Potters were going over how it would be best to execute their plan to get Harry back into Hogwarts.

"Hmm… I have no doubt you can pull this off, but what about Madam Marchbanks? Surely she will warn Dumbledore or James if she finds out," Asked Harry. To keep studying with his classmates and keep Dumbledore from not letting him get his OWLs this year, they decided that Harry would take his fourth-year examinations at the Ministry of Magic. That way no one would know Harry was alive and he wouldn't have to worry about his education; the Quidditch World Cup had provided him the best opportunity he could have gotten, but the main problem was stopping anyone at the Ministry from warning Dumbledore or James that he was still breathing.

"Griselda owes me a few favors, I could persuade her to refrain from telling anyone before the first day of Hogwarts. So stop worrying and prepare for your exams." Harry's grandfather said with a tone of finality in his voice. Harry (upon knowing that his grandfather had already thought things through) decided to return to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Very well, I'll sit all of my exams on the same day and with Tom's memory, I don't have to worry about not doing well in any of them." He stood up and hugged Charles.

The older man patted his back, "I have absolutely no doubt that you will do well in your tests, Harry. Oh, and meet me tomorrow afternoon at the Leaky Cauldron. We'll go to Ministry of Magic together from there."

Harry nodded his head, "Alright."

"Take care and give Elena my best." With one last hug from Charles, he apparated to the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry appeared in the Chamber with a soft pop. He sighed when he realized that his apparition wasn't silent, unlike Tom Riddle's, who had mastered silent apparition in his fourth year. He blamed it on his magical core. He had almost three times the magic that Tom had when he was Harry's age.

He entered the study to find Salazar and Elena perfecting the ritual. Salazar had a notebook inside his portrait and was working on arithmantic formulae. Salazar's portrait was the only one (that Harry had seen) that could materialize objects inside of it; he guessed Slytherin had added complex charms on the frame before his death. The ritual was almost complete and, from the recent test results, Harry could see that it was going to give him a significant advantage over his foes. But even with Salazar and Elena working together it was going to take at least three more weeks to finish it.

Suddenly, Harry was aware of the fact that he was becoming increasingly light-headed, and could feel his magic being drained out of his body. He looked over at Elena to see her refreshed and working on runes with a new vigor. This was - luckily - the only drawback of the modified ritual that he and Elena had to endure.

 **~Flashback~**

 _"Do you really think this ritual will work?" Questioned Elena. She was hesitant to do the ritual but knew its importance, knew how much depended on it. She was worried about the ritual not working properly because of her being a non-human and destabilizing her body._

 _"Yes, I have no doubt that the ritual's going to work. Just make sure that you concentrate on what part of me you want to bind yourself to," answered Harry. All Elena could manage was a tentative nod._

 _Salazar, who was re-checking all the runes and their positions, looked up and asked, "Which part of Harry will that be? It is imperative that you make the right decision before we start."_

 _"His blood, it has the strongest connection to his magic, and will undoubtedly strengthen our bond even more,"_

 _Salazar nodded his head thoughtfully at her reasoning with a calm facade before shouting, "Have you lost your mind?! Did you even think, for one second, about what would happen if someone found out about your bonding with Harry's blood? What would happen when they then took it for some nefarious use!? The blood of anyone is not at all hard to obtain if someone is focused enough on getting it."_

 _Elena had the decency to look ashamed at her choice, her expression morphing rapidly into horror when she realized that her bond could have been in danger if someone knew about her connection with him. She shuddered at the thought of what could've happened if someone managed to transfer her bond from Harry's blood to some other thing; she was a walking, talking example of the fact that nothing was impossible with the help of magic._

 _Harry, sensing her growing distress, wrapped his arms around her from behind and whispered softly, "Don't worry about it too much, just make sure that you discuss important decisions with either me or Salazar before rushing into one."_

 _Elena nodded absently at his words before thinking more about what part of Harry she could bind herself to. She was already sharing half of his soul, so that was no longer an option. Suddenly an idea hit her and she turned towards Salazar, "What about his magic?"_

 _"Magic? Is it even possible to bind someone to magic?" Harry asked incredulously._

 _"Hmm…It is possible, at least in theory. Magical oaths and bonds often tie themselves to a person's magic. Why not try it? Even if it didn't work then no harm would be done. The ritual we'd perform is ... relatively safe and has been used long before even I was born," answered Salazar with anticipation shining in his eyes. Harry resisted the urge to facepalm. Leave it to his ancestor to urge him to take part in dangerous rituals._

 _Salazar had proposed that instead of drawing the ritual heptagons with blood, they should draw them with the elixir that had saved Harry's life. Harry and Elena had eagerly agreed to the suggestion. They bought a dozen vials of Phoenix tears from a shopkeeper in Knockturn Alley - for a hefty sum, of course, which was, thankfully, provided by Charles Potter. The most difficult thing to organize for the ritual would have been basilisk poison if they didn't already have the carcass of a thousand-year-old basilisk right outside their Chamber._

 _Elena brought out the Philosopher's stone, which she had hidden in the basilisk's lair when she killed it. She placed it in a silver beaker before pouring Harry's blood over the rough surface. After coming in contact with the stone, the blood's color changed from red to orange with slight golden hue. She then poured a few small vials of basilisk poison and phoenix tears in after it. As soon as the teardrops slipped down the smooth glass and silently dropped into the beaker, the potion lost all color - it could have been confused with water if it wasn't for the oddly high amount of magic emanating from the clear liquid. Elena then proceeded to draw the heptagon with the mixture using a brush, making sure that it wasn't contaminated in any way._

 _The ritual was invented by Druids in the second century A.D. and was used as a recognized consummation of marriages, where both husband and wife bound themselves to each other. It made sure that neither of them betrayed each other and gave them a rough idea of their counterpart's emotions. Later on, this ritual was modified and corrupted so it could be to bind together slaves and their masters. The ritual made sure that the slaves remained loyal and obedient._

 _Elena and Salazar had chosen this ritual after skipping through dozens in Salazar's library, and as Elena was already loyal and couldn't go against Harry's wishes, the ritual wouldn't affect her in any way other than making Harry an anchor for her soul and provide stability to her body. She, along with Harry and Salazar, had added a secondary ritual into the original that would give Elena a magical core. The ritual was created by Rowena Ravenclaw herself to let squibs use magic, although she was unsuccessful in her attempts. While the ritual gave a magical core to squibs, they had no way of refilling their magical core once it was empty. Thankfully, Elena had no such problems and could siphon off Harry's magic to refill her core._

 _"Are you sure you're both ready?" Salazar asked, noticing Harry giving him a wary look. Elena, on the other hand, nodded eagerly and entered the Ritual Polygon trying to hide h. It was a heptagon with several small runes - carved into stone - on all of the sides. Harry, after being given matching expectant looks from Elena and Salazar, finally caved in. He entered a second, smaller, heptagon attached to the larger one (which was also littered with different runes engraved onto the edges)._

 _Harry let his magic flow through the runes with the help of his wand and immediately felt his powers slip away from him. He had no doubt in his mind that he was going to face magical exhaustion once this was over. He looked down to see several ingredients (unicorn's hair, phoenix ashes, and powdered centaur hooves) slowly releasing their entrapped magic, mixing with his own._

 _Suddenly, Harry felt the drain on his magic increase exponentially, signifying that the ritual was about to end. He braced himself for the exhaustion that was sure to come, not even a second later felt like he had been sucked dry and his world faded to black._

 **~Flashback Ends~**

After the ritual, Elena could move freely without worrying about distance and cast spells without using magic directly from Harry's magical core. Her own magical core was average in size but he could regulate the amount of magic he wanted to transfer to it. Binding Elena to his magic, although still being uncertain of the mechanics behind it, gave Harry the added advantage of strengthening his bond to Elena. Now he could use his magic to the utter limits without worrying about Elena. Even if he had no magic left for a few moments, Elena would survive due to her own magical core.

The drawback of the ritual was that until the core got stable it would suck huge amounts of magic from him. It would take a few more days for her core to get stable.

Harry decided to not disturb Salazar or Elena and picked up a leather-bound book and settled into a chair. The book was handwritten by Salazar for his heirs so that they knew how to control the common room. According to Salazar, every founder had added many charms and secret rooms into their house's common room for students to find and use, but unlike the others, only his heirs could use the Slytherin ones. Harry wanted to use every advantage he could gain and if he played his cards right he would have the support of all of the Slytherins in Hogwarts. He opened the book and started reading about the various rooms and secret passageways connected to the Slytherin common room.

* * *

:Time Skip: (August 30th)

The Headmaster's Office played host to a large number of spindly tables; upon which several delicate looking silver instruments were set, whirring and emitting small puffs of smoke, as well as an incredibly vast collection of books. Every spare section of wall was covered in portraits of previous headmasters.

Currently, the office held James, Lily, and Eric Potter while they discussed the upcoming school year with Albus Dumbledore.

"As you all know, this year Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard tournament. It provides us a golden opportunity to gain allies." Dumbledore threw today's edition of Daily Prophet on the table. On the front page, there was a photo of the Dark Mark, which was cast after the Death Eater attack during the Quidditch World Cup. "The dark side is on the move again. Lord Voldemort is finally making his move and I think he'll be back before the school year ends. Gaining allies is important for the coming war."

"I will try to gain as many followers as I can from the foreign schools even if I have to use my fame for it," said Eric Potter. His overall look had changed a lot in the past year, he had lost his baby fat and now he looked more athletic - probably due to his overly-obsessive Quidditch playing. He still wore thick, wire-rimmed glasses and had messy black hair. All-in-all, he looked like a miniature James Potter.

"That would be for the best, Eric. This year I will start training you, and will make it official by creating a Master-Apprentice bond with you. It will increase the awe the students feel towards you and will make gaining allies an easily obtainable task," replied Dumbledore. Eric's eyes widened after hearing the Headmaster's plan and started grinning like a loon.

"Well done, son. Now girls will be even more willing to spread their legs for you," said James while patting Eric on his back.

"James!" admonished Lily, while slapping James on the back of his head. Dumbledore chuckled, fuelling Lily's irritation.

"Now onto serious matters. Eric, I want you to be on your best behavior this year. Try to shorten the gap between other houses and yourself. They haven't forgotten the Chamber of Secrets incident yet, and while a lot of them don't think you're responsible for _his_ death, they are still wary of you and if we want to stand a chance of winning in the brewing war then we have to remove any doubts they have about you from their minds." Dumbledore leaned on the table and looked through the frames of Eric's glasses; his eyes lacked the twinkle and conveyed the absolute seriousness of the situation. Harry Potter's name was taboo for the rest of the Potter family, saying his name was avoided at all costs in any discussion - even more than Lord Voldemort. The expression on the Potters' faces didn't change after being reminded of their dead family member.

"I understand. I will try my best to clear any doubts they have."

Dumbledore sighed, "As much as I hate to admit it, Harry Potter would have been a great asset for us in the future. With his help, we could have crippled Voldemort's power base in Slytherin from the inside. Even if he was an outcast in Slytherin House, he was still well respected there, due to his magical prowess. Even Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws respected him. Only I know how much work I had to do to stop any investigation of his death. Alas, at that time he had to be sacrificed for the Greater Good."

The Potters grudgingly nodded. As much as they hated him, Harry Potter was a prodigy and was well respected in all the houses (except Gryffindor).

"Now, James, have you talked to Charles about naming Eric as his heir? With his previous heir dead, you or Eric are the only choices he has left and from my sources at Gringotts, he hasn't made any changes in his will yet," asked Dumbledore, peering at James over the half-moon spectacles perched on his crooked nose.

James shook his head.

"No. My old man is still being stubborn and refuses to make any of us his heir. Yesterday, when I asked him, he looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the entire world, and warned me to never ask that again or he would disown me."

"Hmm… looks like Harry's death has hit my old friend harder than I expected. Don't ask him about it again James. If he disowns you, we will lose the Potter Family's seat on the Wizengamot. Permanently," Dumbledore sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Let's just concentrate on more important matters for now. Your training starts the day after tomorrow, Eric. You will be exempt from Transfiguration and Charms, and remember to keep practicing to clear your mind of all distraction."

Eric nodded to show that he understood. With the training Dumbledore was about to give him, he would leave his peers miles behind and show them that he was much better than Harry would have ever been. Even his grandfather would only acknowledge him as an heir.

* * *

August 30th, in the Chamber of Secrets

Harry apparated inside the chamber and found Elena working on refining her dueling moves. Even with Tom's memories, both he and Elena had to familiarize themselves with the techniques. Salazar also helped them in improving the practical skills element of their training. Now all they needed was experience; Elena couldn't cast a spell against him so they had to stick with color changing charms, meaning that they were unable to practice against each other properly.

According to Salazar, even without much experience, their dueling was better than anyone he had seen in their age group and along with his huge magical core they would be able to defeat the vast majority of wizards in Wizarding Britain. Sadly, their enemies were amongst the few in the vast minority, and he knew that Dumbledore and Voldemort would defeat Harry and Elena in a one-on-one fight. Together, he and Elena would be more than a challenge, yet would ultimately be defeated. Both Dumbledore and Voldemort had a huge magical core and had experience in spades - which Harry sorely lacked.

Deciding to ponder it later, Harry moved towards the study. Elena, sensing him, looked towards him and gave a small smile which was returned by a slight grin of his own. Harry signaled her to follow him and entered the study. He gave a nod to Salazar and made himself comfortable on a couch. The house elves had done some minor changes to the Chamber and made it more habitable and comfortable. The couches and an additional table were just two of them.

"Did you get your results?" asked Elena curiously after she sat on the second couch.

Harry took out a piece of parchment from his pocket and handed it to Elena. She gave it a cursory glance before saying, (quite full of pride, although she wouldn't admit to it) "I guess I shouldn't be surprised by it. Well done."

"Thanks. After collecting my marks sheet, I went to Gringotts and had a talk with the goblins. They told me that they have almost finished creating your false identity and it would be finished by next week."

Elena nodded gratefully before fixing him to the spot with an inquisitive stare, "How did you manage to enter Gringotts without someone identifying you? Now that I think about it, how did grandfather manage to sneak you in and out of the Ministry of Magic? I know that you wouldn't have used a disillusionment charm because that flimsy parlor trick would be easily caught in a place full of trained witches and wizards."

Harry smirked at her and pulled out an invisibility cloak from his pocket and handed it to her. Elena studied the cloak and placed it on the table, "So, you used an invisibility cloak, huh?"

"Not simply invisibility cloak, my dear. It is a Potter heirloom, and its wearer can pass through any ward undetected. You should have seen the expression on the faces of goblins when I appeared inside Gringotts without them knowing. Though, Barbcock was willing to pay a huge amount for the cloak."

Salazar, who was listening to their exchange of words intently, interrupted the conversation, "Show me," he ordered forcefully.

Both Harry and Elena blinked at the unexpected interruption and turned towards the founder's portrait and were surprised to see him looking at the cloak with hunger. "Errr…what?" asked Harry.

"Show me the cloak," Slytherin said again firmly while tapping his foot impatiently.

Harry was bewildered by the odd request but unfurled the cloak and showed it to the Hogwarts co-founder. The old man looked at the cloak and then spoke again, "Show me the other side." Harry turned the cloak around and was surprised the see Salazar's eyes widen with surprise and recognition. "I had never thought that I would finally see 'one of the three' with my own eyes," said Salazar with sadness in his voice.

Harry looked at his cloak closely and found the Peverell coat of arms on it; he turned towards Salazar and asked, "What is special about this cloak? I know it had been passed down to Potters by our Peverell ancestors and could pass through wards but that's it."

Salazar looked at him incredulously for a few seconds before saying, "You really don't know what you have in your hands, do you?"

Harry looked at the cloak once more and stressed his mind to remember anything related to Peverell and invisibility cloak before it hit him like a ton of bricks. His head snapped toward Salazar with such speed that he almost got whiplash and asked with a voice filled with disbelieve, "You don't really believe the Deathly Hallows exist, do you?"

"And please tell me, descendant, why should I not believe in the Deathly Hallows?" asked Salazar while looking at Harry with idle curiosity.

"The Hallows are just a myth. The story about the three brothers is just a bedtime story for children."

Salazar just shook his head and said, "Where there is smoke, there is fire. You tend to forget that I lived a millennium ago and the Deathly Hallows were well known at that time. Even I spent more than a year searching for them before giving up. Don't let your emotions cloud your judgment; you have the proof in your hands. That cloak is a Deathly Hallow. An ordinary cloak, family heirloom or not, does not have the power to pass through wards undetected. Why not test it? It is said that the Cloak of Invisibility could hide its wearer from everything, even death."

Harry contemplated the idea before nodding; he turned towards the Elena and said, "Try to detect me after I wear the cloak."

Elena nodded and as soon as Harry put on the Cloak, she cast a ** _'Homenum Revelio'_ ** and was surprised when she couldn't detect him anywhere. She started using different charms, each more complex than the last but was still unable to detect Harry. After a few minutes of trying different charms and wards, she released a sigh and said, "I have tried all the charms and some wards I know of but nothing worked. For all intents and purposes, you are simply not there..."

Harry removed the cloak and appeared at the same place where he had been before putting on the cloak not moments ago. He looked at the soft fabric in awe and handed it to Elena and went back to his seat. Harry sat in silence for a few moments digesting the facts that the Deathly Hallows were real and he had the fabled Cloak of Invisibility in his possession. After a few moments he turned towards Salazar's portrait, who was looking very smug, and said, "Fine, I believe you. The cloak is a Hallow but I still don't believe that the person who gathers all three will become the 'Master of Death'."

"The only way to know to that, dear boy, is to gather all the Hallows," Salazar ignored the deadpan expression on Harry's face and continued, "The Hallows could be a useful tool in bringing back glory to the Slytherin name."

"You want me to gather the Hallows," Harry said in a flat tone.

Before Salazar could answer Harry, they were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. They turned towards the source to see Elena looking at them with an impatient expression on her face, Harry wanted to comment about how sexy she looked when she was annoyed but held his tongue and instead asked, "What?"

"Not everyone here has grown up in a wizarding home, so will you be kind enough to tell me what the Deathly Hallows are?" asked Elena with some annoyance seeping into her voice.

Harry smiled at her sheepishly and apologized, "Sorry, here, This will help you understand." Harry got up from his seat and pressed his index finger to her forehead and concentrated on his knowledge of Deathly Hallows. Elena closed her eyes and using her Occulumency skills sorted out the knowledge that Harry transferred.

Harry, seeing that his work was done, turned towards the Founder's portrait to try and talk some sense into him (about not expecting impossible feats from his heir) - Merlin knew where the Hallows were at the moment! But Salazar beat him to the punch, "Yes, I want you to gather the Hallows. You already have one; now all you need to do is find the two others."

Harry just looked at Salazar with his jaw dropped in disbelief, "Finding the first one was just a stroke of luck, we don't know if the other two are even in the continent or not."

Elena, who had finished sorting out her new her memories, turned towards the arguing duo, "I remember seeing the Peverell coat of arms on a Gaunt family ring in Tom Riddle's memories. It was engraved on a black stone embedded in the ring." Both Harry and Salazar's heads snapped towards Elena in synchronization, and she was slightly freaked out by the look in their eyes, but continued nonetheless, "I think it was passed down to the Gaunts when a female descendant of Cadmus Peverell married into the Gaunt line."

Salazar growled at the name Gaunt and asked, "Do you have any idea what Tom planned to do with the ring? The stone could be the Resurrection stone."

"He was planning to make the ring his second Horcrux," answered Elena.

Salazar swore loudly in parseltongue when he heard it. Finding a Horcrux is going to be hard even with Elena's memories from Tom. This time, Harry was the one who asked the question, "Do you have any idea where Tom would have hidden the ring?"

"I have some suspicions. If you want then I could search for it when you're busy with classes," answered Elena.

"No! You are not going to search for it alone; we'll do it together once we've finished with the ritual," said Harry in a tone that screamed that he wasn't going to budge from his decision. Elena nodded quickly when she heard the voice Harry used, not that she could ever go against his wishes.

"Now, all you need to do it find the Elder wand," said Salazar with a faraway look in his eyes while imagining himself rubbing it in the face of Godric that his descendant became the Master of Death.

Harry and Elena nodded, they weren't sure that the stone on the Gaunt signet ring was the Resurrection Stone, but with the history of the ring, it was very likely. Harry turned towards Salazar and said, "I'll ask grandfather if he had any idea about the location of the Elder wand when I meet him again. Speaking of Tom, he is going to make his move again." Harry threw the Daily Prophet on the table with the first page open. Both Elena and Salazar looked at the photo of the Dark Mark on the front page.

"Now that's what you call an ugly mark," commented Salazar while Elena just shuddered with disgust.

"It was conjured after the Quidditch World Cup finals, while some Death Eaters terrorized the people present there," said Harry while Elena gave a brief glance at the article in the Prophet. He continued, "This year the Triwizard Tournament is once again being organized at Hogwarts after almost two centuries, and I have a feeling that Voldemort is behind it."

"You will need to keep your guard up during the school year, as you will be targeted by both Voldemort and Dumbledore," warned Salazar.

"Don't worry, I won't be caught unprepared like last time, and if they try something I'll return it twofold," hissed Harry while remembering the event that changed his life.

Elena got up from her seat and hugged Harry gently to calm him down. She vowed to finish the ritual as soon as possible and find a way to be with Harry without anyone knowing so that she could protect him. She could feel Harry's magic pulse inside her as if agreeing to her train of thoughts.

After a few moments, Harry calmed down and pulled Elena onto his lap making her blush bright red and look anywhere but at the boy, she was now sitting on. Harry just chuckled at the girl, seeing her flustered, before turning his attention towards Salazar, who was looking at them with amusement and a knowing glint in his eyes, "I am planning to take revenge for their every misdeed towards me. I will show them that it was a bad idea to mess with Harry Potter-Slytherin." Elena and Salazar nodded in unison, showing their support for his future actions.

Harry got up from his seat, (while maintaining his grip on Elena) making her stand up too, "Now, I am feeling very tired after today's events, so I am going to sleep." Salazar nodded and bid them both good night.

Harry woke up in the morning, feeling a warm pressure being applied to his shoulders - someone giving him a massage. He looked over his shoulder to see Elena, still clad in her sleepwear, a bra and a panties matching with her hair color, kneading his shoulders. It took him a few seconds to remove his eyes from her perfect DD cup breasts - gifted by magic, hidden by nothing but a skimpy lacy bra that left little to the imagination. He looked up at her face to see her avoiding eye contact and blushing, no doubt from seeing him stare unashamedly at her breasts. He just chuckled at the daily occurrence before giving her a chaste kiss on lips which she returned. He tried to get up but was stopped by Elena. She had a nervous, almost insecure look in her eyes.

Deciding to not beat around the bush and get to the point, she asked, "What do you feel towards me?"

Harry barely resisted the urge to groan, it was too early in the morning to think about it. He was trying to stall this 'talk' for as long as he could, but it looked like Elena couldn't take it anymore and decided to ask him. Seeing the look in her eyes, he decided that he couldn't stall anymore, and thought about the best way to word his feelings: "You are the person I trust most in the world and at the moment one of the three people in the world whom I care about more than anyone else. I don't think I need to tell you who those other two people are." Elena shook her head; she knew very well who the people Harry cared about were. Harry continued, "I know you'll never go against my wishes and will do whatever you can to ensure my success. That's my logical point of view. Emotionally, I admit I am slowly falling in love with you and would have admitted it a lot earlier if I didn't love Daphne too. You know what my feelings for Daphne are and I don't want to choose one over another. There is a chance that Daphne would have moved on from me, but from what I know about her, that's highly unlikely."

Elena's face brightened after hearing him admit that he loved her, while she knew he would never treat her badly, she still wanted his love more than anything in the world with the exception of his happiness. Deciding to lessen his worries, she spoke, "I don't think there is any need to tell you about my feelings after all my whole life revolves around you. And I also understand your hesitation regarding our relationship, but I don't think you need to worry about Daphne."

Harry looked at Elena with confusion, "What do you mean by that?"

Elena smirked and said, "Call it a girl's intuition."

Hearing this, Harry proceeds to tackle Elena on the bed and starts tickling her exposed sides. Her sounds of laughter filled the whole Chamber. After a minute of continuous tickling, Elena managed to contain her laughter for a few seconds and wheezed out, "I quit, I quit."

After a few more moments of prolonged torture, Harry stopped his fingers and gazed at her. Upon seeing her eyes full of laughter and joy, something inside of him snapped. Spontaneously deciding that he'd deal with the consequences later, Harry proceeded to kiss Elena. She was momentarily stunned by the suddenness of the action but started to return it with vigor after a few moments. She had never felt so much pleasure in her admittedly short life, the magic in her body practically humming with approval. She felt Harry's tongue probing her lips and she opened them without a moment's hesitation. Their tongues battled for dominance before Harry's tongue overcame hers and proceeded to explore her mouth. After a minute, the need for oxygen forced them to pull apart.

"Wow, that was amazing," Harry breathed out. Elena just nodded her head; her eyes glazed over with lust. Before she could say something, Harry once again attacked her lips and without hesitation, she returned it in kind.

Half an hour after a satisfying snogging session, both lay still panting on their bed with sweat gleaming on their bodies. Suddenly a thought struck Harry, he turned towards Elena and asked, "Do you want to accompany me this evening to cause some mayhem?"

Elena's eyes widened at the question, "But what about the map Grandfather talked about?"

Harry smirks at her, "I have already separated the dungeon's wards from the rest of the castle, with the help of the book Salazar gave me. As long as you don't go outside the Dungeons your name won't appear on the map."

Elena's once again jumped on him and proceeded to snog him senseless when she heard that she could enter Slytherin House without fear of someone knowing outside of it.

"What a way to start the day," Harry said after Elena stopped kissing him.

* * *

 **A/N: I decided to do minor changes in the timeline. In this fiction, Peverells lived a century before founders. That's why Salazar knew about Deathly Hallows.**

 **If you find any mistakes or plot holes please PM me or Point it out in a review.**

 **Special thanks to** monsterxmonster89 **pestering me to post this chapter.**

 **To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the low number of reviews for the last chapter. I don't think it's very problematic to spend one minute in writing a review. So don't forget to drop a review.**

 **Beta:** Heckyehbaconpancakes


	5. Charming The Snakes

**5\. CHARMING THE SNAKES**

 **DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER.**

* * *

Daphne Greengrass was not a happy witch. And the main reason for her unhappiness was a supposedly dead boy, Harry Potter. She knew he was back in full health and from what she knew about him, and she knew him very well, he would be attending this school year. So, when Harry didn't enter her compartment even when Hogwarts Express started, she decided to search for him herself and to her surprise, he wasn't on the train.

She was brought back from her train of thought by a hand on her thigh. She turned towards her left and glared at the offender, Adrian Pucey, a sixth year Slytherin and her 'boyfriend'. He quickly pulled his hand back and muttered an apology, though his eyes showed her that he wasn't in the least bit sorry. Life in Slytherin was tough, and a girl as beautiful as Daphne had to find different ways to protect herself. She had approached Adrian in the middle of the fourth year and made a deal with him, at the time Adrian was trying to gain as much support as he could to run for Slytherin leadership in his sixth year. The deal she made was she would act as his girlfriend minus physical stuff. In return, he would give her protection inside Slytherin house. With the news of Daphne being his girlfriend, when she had so painfully rejected everyone's advances, he had managed to acquire the support of some of the neutral Slytherins to become the next leader of Slytherin House.

The reason Daphne desperately wanted Harry to come back was because the deal she had made wouldn't matter anymore after tonight's election, and Adrian knew that fact too. That was the main reason he dared to lay a hand on her. While she could take care of herself very well, even she couldn't challenge the whole of the Slytherin Hierarchy alone.

She turned towards the Head table and saw James and Lily potter sitting close to each other while clapping at Dumbledore's announcement of the return of the Triwizard tournament. Her parents had already told her all about it, so she didn't bother to listen; instead, she focused her attention on the Potters. They had been appointed this year as assistant teachers for Flying and Charms. Dumbledore wanted to support Eric as much as he could, and bringing his parents here as teachers showed how much favoritism he showed towards 'The-Boy-Who-Lived'.

Daphne shook her head to once again clear thoughts from her mind and started to think about her back up plan, which she would have to put in place if Harry didn't show up. The thought of Harry not returning brought a painful ache to her heart, so she put her hands in the pocket of her skirt and took out the flower that Harry had given her, it had become larger as time passed and from what she had read about flowers of this type, it showed the health and power of its creator. The reason she was so certain that Harry was alive was because the flower's size had increased almost three times after almost melting at the end of the third year. She just wished he would let her in on whatever plan he'd cooked up; after all, she still wanted him to fulfill the oath he had taken in his second year.

* * *

The Slytherins were holding their first house meeting of the year, headed by Severus Snape. This was a tradition in Slytherin House, dating back to the founder's age. Every year an election was held and the most influential Slytherin got selected as the de-facto leader of the house, the head of the house being present ensures that no cheating is done. Every member of Slytherin house, from the first year to seventh, was seated in the common room while Snape conjured a table and a comfortable chair for himself.

Snape stood up from his seat to address the Slytherins gathered there but was interrupted by a clicking sound from the left wall, a hush fell on the Slytherins as they looked towards the offending bricks. Snape and a few Slytherins drew their wands and pointed it towards the wall, in case a hostile creature of some kind emerged through the cement. The clicking sound continued for a few seconds, before a small part of the wall opened like a door. Now, almost every Slytherin was pointing their wands at the slight opening.

Suddenly, the air thickened with magic and a weight settled on everyone's shoulders. Snape's body tensed, preparing for the upcoming fight and to protect as many children as he could. Two people entered through the door, wearing hooded cloaks that hid their faces, but the bodies clearly showed that one was male while the other female. The male was undoubtedly the one who was suffocating everyone with magic, though the female beside him was unaffected, his golden aura with hues of white and black shining fiercely.

Snape hadn't felt such a powerful aura from anyone other than Lord Voldemort and Albus Dumbledore themselves. He shakily pointed his wand at the intruders, who had somehow managed to enter directly into the Slytherin common room, without anyone knowing, and said, "Stop! Move one more step and I will end your life." Even with him practically suffocating from the aura, his voice remained calm and collected, not even an ounce of fear that he had been feeling slipped into it.

The intruders didn't even stop for a second, male's magical aura bristling - seemingly preparing for a fight. They ignored Snape's presence and moved towards the fireplace. Snape, seeing them not taking any hostile action and not wanting to initiate a fight, relaxed his tight grip on his wand a fraction, and could immediately feel the blood flow returning to his hand. The male stopped in front of the fireplace and placed his hand on the wall above like he was searching for something before a ring materialized on his finger and he placed it on the mouth of a small snake statue, that Snape could have sworn wasn't there before. The eyes of the serpent started to glow and a pulse of magic shot out from it in a haze of emerald light.

Almost everyone was thrown backward by the flash. In the panic, Draco Malfoy cast a stunning spell at the intruder, but it was slapped aside by the female. The head of house cringed at Malfoy's stupidity and waited for the retaliation that he was certain would come. That's why surprise clouded his face for a brief second when they didn't lash out, instead kept doing what they were prior to the attack. The male took out a familiar wand, though Snape couldn't remember where he had seen it before. He drew a large M on the wall using the wand, the letter vanishing almost as soon as it was finished. Another pulse of magic shot out of the wall and Snape could feel its tendrils coiling around his Occlumency shields, he immediately recognized it as some type of memory-related ward.

A loud gasp came from the far side of the room, students turned around to find Daphne Greengrass looking at the male's wand with recognition and anger burning in her eyes. With her eyes brimming with tears, she gasped out, "Harry?"

As soon as the name was uttered the magical aura disappeared, students started taking deep breaths all around him, like they were breathing for the first time. Snape discretely wiped the sweat from his forehead and whirled around to face the intruder, who had removed his hood and gave a soft smile, "Hello, Daphne."

Suddenly, the magnitude of the intruder's identity hit Snape; somehow Harry Potter was alive and a lot stronger than before, when the Potters and Dumbledore were so sure that he'd died inside the Chamber of Secrets, due to Basilisk poisoning. Dumbledore hadn't told him everything that went down in the Chamber but he did tell him that Harry Potter was sacrificed for the 'Greater Good'. Yet, somehow Harry Potter survived being bitten by a thousand-year-old Basilisk and appeared to have somehow grown stronger from it. He could only imagine Dumbledore's reaction to seeing him alive.

Daphne ran towards Harry and engulfed him in a bone-crushing hug, which was immediately returned by Harry. Daphne kept hugging him for few seconds before pulling back and looking at him. To her surprise Harry's face had changed a lot, all the baby fat had disappeared without a trace, his skin tone was slightly paler, most likely from not receiving any sunlight, his eyes had an inner glow to them. His height had also increased spectacularly, last time she had seen him, he had been about 5'3" but now he looked to be about 6 feet tall. Reading the unasked question, Harry whispered, "Later.".

Daphne nodded and stepped back, her Ice Queen persona back in place. Almost all the students had gathered their wits about them and were shocked to see him alive, while those who didn't recognize him were being told by people in the upper years. Before he could address them, he was interrupted by Snape, "Potter! What in the name of Merlin were you doing?"

Harry tried to look confused and replied, "I was hugging Daphne, Professor." A few students who heard it started to snicker but quickly got silent once Snape glared at them.

"You know what I'm talking about Potter, so don't try to play smart with me."

Harry was tempted to push Snape a bit more but decided to just get it over with and start his plan and replied, "I activated a memory containment ward invented by my ancestor around the common room."

There were shouts of outrage from the Slytherins but Harry ignored them in favor of observing Snape's reaction and from the height of the professor's eyebrows, he guessed that he had caught on to what Harry was implying. Snape looked at Harry in disbelief and hissed, "Don't lie to me Potter, there has never been a Potter in Slytherin before you and the ward you activated was already placed here. So how did you manage to place a ward here in the common room? And how the hell are you still alive? Eric Potter," He spat the name like it was a disgusting poison, "informed us that you had died in the Chamber of Secrets, from Basilisk poison."

Harry just smirked, conjured a throne without so much as a thought, and sat on it. The throne was of silver and green color with several snake motifs on it. Elena sat on his right side on the armrest. He looked at the other occupants and could see some of them looking at him with an angry scowl. He guessed that his show of power, in the beginning, had made them wary of attacking him and were waiting for him to slip up. Harry looked at Snape and was unsurprised to see him looking at him with an impassive face, showing no emotion. But his eyes betrayed the anger and fury he was feeling at being disrespected in front of so many of his students.

Harry decided that now was the time to drop the bomb and keep them unbalanced, by saying, "I was going to tell you about how I am still alive before you interrupted me, but first your question will be answered. I never said that a Potter had placed theward matrix here, did I? And you should know professor that no matter what you do, you couldn't placea ward, even in inactive state, for more than a year inside Hogwarts, unless it is placed by the headmaster or a Founder's heir. They need to be repaired and recharged at regular intervals." a lot of eyes widened after hearing this but Harry continued before he could be interrupted he continued, "Theward I activated had been placed there by Salazar Slytherin himself for his heirs to use and, like some of you would have guessed, I am the heir of Slytherin, as Dumbledore said at the end of my third year." Harry tried to say it as nonchalantly as possible. Before anyone could accuse him of lying, He showed his right hand to everyone and two rings materialized on his fingers, the Potter heir ring was on his ring finger, while the Slytherin ring was on his middle finger.

There was a collective gasp from everyone gathered around, and Harry would have laughed at their faces if the situation were not so important. He nearly broke down in a laughing fit when he saw Snape's face and had to use all of his occlumency training to stop. Snape, even with his own advanced occlumency skills, was gaping like a fish out of the water and his eyes were wide with disbelieve. Harry decided that he was going to show this memory to Salazar and his grandfather as soon as possible.

Harry leaned back in his chair and watched as the commotion unfolded. He knew what was coming next, some morons would accuse him of lying and he knew the perfect way to deal with them. So he was not surprised when there was a loud shout of him being a 'liar'and several others voicing their agreement. Harry glared at them, before releasing his magic once again, and it cowed them quickly.

Once all of them were silent, he hissed, "Never accuse me of lying. The heir ring on my finger proves it that I am the heir of Salazar Slytherin and if you think that the ring is fake you are free to try it on yourself," when a few students looked like they were going to agree that the ring was fake, He increased his magical aura, and stopped them, "All of you were chosen to be in this house for a reason, think about this situation then decide whether I am lying or not, don't let yourself be guided by emotions like foolish Gryffindors."

Harry knew that by comparing them with Gryffindors while not letting them protest would make them think in the right direction. He could already see the smarter Slytherins had come to the right conclusion and were looking at him with awe. He slowly reined his aura and let them think properly; after all, it won't be advantageous to his plan if someone snapped under pressure.

Snape wiped the sweat gathered on his forehead and looked at Harry calculatingly and asked a question that had been bothering him since the Heir's ring was shown, "What about the Dark Lord? It is a well-known fact he claimed to be 'The Heir of Slytherin' after all he was a parseltongue too."

Every student went quiet at the question and looked at Harry for the answer, this was the main reason they were disbelieving of Harry's claim, how could he be an heir of Slytherin when Dark Lord had already claimed to be 'The Heir of Slytherin'. Harry knew this question was going to be asked and had discussed with Salazar and Elena, about how much he should tell others about it. He remained silent for few seconds before answering in a calm voice like he was talking about the weather, "To answer your question, Professor, I will have to tell you about his background, as the smarter ones among you would have guessed, Voldemort was not his real name. Lord Voldemort was an anagram of his real name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, son of a squib from the Gaunt line and a muggle."

There was a huge uproar from the students, some of them even drew their wands and let loose few curses. Harry didn't even bat an eyelash when a golden colored shield appeared between him and the curses. All of the curses struck the shield but not even a single crack appeared on its surface. All of the eyes turned towards the caster of the Shield charm and were stunned at her sight. In the process of casting the shield charm her hood had fallen, showing her face to others. Her red hair presented a mesmerizing sight and her face, even with an angry scowl plastered on it, was as beautiful as ever. Her blue eyes showed her anger at the thought of Harry being harmed. Using the surprise of the Slytherins to her own advantage, she quickly cast a wide area disarming charm and the wands of all those who attacked Harry sailed towards her hand, but instead of catching them she let them hit the wall behind her. The wide area disarming charm was a variation of 'Expelliarmus', used to disarm multiple people. Although could be easily resisted if the holder of the wand targeted is aware that the spell is coming and channels magic in his or her wand. It's used commonly by Hit Wizards to control a riot.

Harry, who was expecting this type of violent reaction from his shocked audience, just smirked at their dumbfounded looks while Elena gave them her most piercing glare. Sensing that Elena may retaliate, he put his hand on her thigh to stop her from retaliating; after all, it won't be good for what he had planned for tomorrow if half of the Slytherin house were in hospital beds. As soon as she felt his soothing hand on her thigh, Elena blushed and relaxed. She realized that her hood had fallen and the jealousy filled glares and lustful gazes from boys and girls respectively almost made her pull the hood up but realized that it would make others think of her as shy and insecure. Even with Tom's memories, she was uncomfortable in front of crowds.

Sensing her discomfort, Harry pulled her into his lap and gently rubbed his thumb on her covered belly. Elena immediately relaxed in his lap but had to use all of her occlumency training to not resemble a tomato. Shows of affection were still a new thing for her.

Daphne, who was sitting on the war side of the common room, ignoring the whole ordeal, narrowed her eyes at the sight of Elena in Harry's lap. She could clearly see the love Harry had for Elena in his eyes. She felt her heart ache at that thought but ignored it and decided to talk with Harry before jumping to conclusions. Though, a treacherous part of her mind told her that Harry had moved on, unlike herself, who had still been waiting for Harry to show himself.

Harry, who was basking in the jealous stares, caught Daphne's eyes and his good mood immediately disappeared. He could plainly see the hurt and anger in her eyes even though she was trying to hide it. Not wanting to let her jump on wrong conclusions and for his own health, he decided to end this quickly.

He realized that everyone must have been having trouble gathering their wits after the many new revelations because no one had even asked for Elena's identity - though he could see Snape looking at Elena with narrowed eyes. Deciding to continue, Harry said, "While I realize that it must have been a shock to know that the champion of purebloods was a half-blood himself, please control your reaction. Now where was I before the outburst? Ah yes, the Gaunts. Gaunts were responsible for the near extinction of the Slytherin line; after marrying a daughter from Slytherin's line, they hired some of the best assassins of the time to kill the unprepared and defenseless Slytherins. This is why my ancestor, the Head of Slytherin at the time, disowned his daughter and cursed the Gaunts with madness. He even managed to get one of his sons to a hideout, rendering the whole plan of the Gaunts' useless. I inherited the Slytherin line from my mother's side and before you could scream about her being a muggleborn, while she had Slytherin blood in her, it was diluted and weak. The Potter blood in me unlocked its full potential, making me an eligible heir. At least, that's what happened according to Salazar."

He intentionally let slip Salazar's name to make it more believable and start the next phase of his plan. And by the widening of everyone's eyes, he knew he was making progress. One of the seventh year Slytherins, Baron Crux, if Harry remembered correctly, came forward and asked, "What do you mean by that, Potter?"

Harry looked at him with a confused face, before his eyes widened in realization like he just realized what the question was about, "Ah! There is an enchanted portrait of Salazar Slytherin inside the Chamber of Secrets. How do you think I know about what happened between the Gaunts and Slytherins? He was all too pleased to tell me all about it."

Harry decided to go for the heart of the problem and stood up from his seat, "I know a lot of you don't believe what I have said so far, and I would have been very disappointed if you did. So, to remove any doubts that you have in your mind, 'I Harry James Potter, swear on my life and magic that what I have said so far is truth as far as I know; so I swear, so mote it be.'"

There was a flash of light signifying that the oath was taken and when Harry didn't fall dead like some of them thought he would, the reality hit them like a bludger. Loud mutterings broke the silence that prevailed after the oath. Some of the Slytherins from the dark Pureblood families just couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that the wizard whose feet their parents kissed had even lower blood status than a half-blood, while those belonging to neutral faction were stunned that the House of Slytherin was not extinct like everybody thought. They could only imagine the political impact of this revelation.

Severus Snape on the other hand, just couldn't wait for this to go public, while the lineage of Dark lord was already known to him, though he had no idea how the mysterious Potter, now Potter-Slytherin knew it, other things were news to him. After going through everything that had happened during the house meeting, he realized that Harry was creating his own support base before the inevitable meeting with Dumbledore, which if he guessed right will be at tomorrow's breakfast. He knew as soon as Harry revealed himself Dumbledore will be scrambling to save his well thought out plans. He mentally chuckled, thinking about the drama that was going to unfold tomorrow.

He turned his eyes towards the girl sitting on Harry's lap; he had never seen anyone with such an exotic hair color, and the way she cast spell showed mastery of magic very few achieved at her age. She was an unknown in the whole equation and the only thing he was sure of was that she was loyal to Harry, and was important enough for Potter to let her accompany him to the meeting. And to think that there was an enchanted portrait of Salazar Slytherin inside the Chamber of Secrets, while the location was not surprising its existence was. He knew that purebloods would be willing to spend a fortune just for a chance to meet the founder's portrait.

Tracy Davis, a fourth year, came forward and asked, "Could we meet Salazar's Portrait?" pulling the words right from Snape's mind.

Harry, not even bothering to pretend that he was thinking about whether to agree or refuse, answered, "No."

Everyone was stunned at the clipped answer and started to shout about letting them see their House's founder's portrait. Harry didn't bother to make them silent and just leaned back on his throne, brushing Elena's hair with his fingers. After a minute's continuous shouting, the Slytherins got silent and just glared at Harry for ignoring them. Harry, upon seeing that they'd become silent, asked, "Are you done shouting like idiots? This is the main reason I didn't bring his portrait with me and agree to let you meet him. Slytherin House is nothing but a shadow of its former self. The students of this house were praised for their cunning and ambition, but now..." Harry shook his head and looked at them disappointment in his eyes, "all I see are bigoted idiots guided by emotions instead of the brain, and who lack the ambition required for being an ideal Slytherin. How do you think Salazar will feel, even if it's just his Portrait when he sees that the house he loved and cherished is nothing more than a place for defective Gryffindors in Slytherin clothing?"

Harry knew that even the thought of disappointing the founder of their House, a man who was even revered as a god in dark pureblood households, would make them cringe. Add in the way he worded it, and bam! Harry knew that Slytherin house would be having some major changes. It also cemented his image as an ideal Slytherin and the person who knew the most about being Slytherin; after all, he was the heir of Salazar Slytherin himself.

He was surprised that no one voiced their disagreement at his thinking and observed their expressions. While a lot of them were looking genuinely thoughtful, he could see a few of them glaring at him murderously. _'I guess they aren't doing anything because of my earlier show of power, but I'm willing to bet a thousand galleons that at least one of them will challenge me tomorrow,'_ thought Harry while looking at Malfoy glaring at him with murderous intentions.

After a few minutes, Harry decided that he had given them enough time to think about what he said, and removed his hand from Elena's waist. Elena, who was observing everyone closely, got the signal and stood up. Harry also rose from his throne, the elegant throne vanishing as soon as he was on his feet. A loud clap resonated from his hands, the sheer force of the action getting everyone's attention, "Now, a lot of you must be wondering about the events of my third year and how I am still alive. When according to Dumbledore, I should have died from basilisk poison."

There were nods from almost everyone. Even Snape who was now back in his chair leaned forward slightly for the answer. Suddenly the temperature of the room dropped several degrees, and a chill settled over the whole common room. "I won't go into much detail about what happened during the whole 'Chamber of Secrets Ordeal', so long story short, I was used as a scapegoat by the Potters' and Dumbledore, so that the culprit , who was actually being possessed by a dark artifact, could get scot free. While it was true that I was bitten by the basilisk," Harry showed the scar on his palm where the basilisk had pierced his skin. Some of the Slytherins gasped at the sight, it was a small black mark in the middle of his palm. Even though the wound was healed, the color of his skin never returned. "I didn't die because of it like Dumbledore thought. I barely managed to survive even with the help of some family magic, and was in a magically-induced coma for nine months."

Some of the students looked like they wanted to ask what magic was used, but were held back by the smarter ones - who understood that he didn't want anyone to know about the magic that was used by him, by naming it 'family magic'. It was anonymously decided by Elena, Salazar and himself that the Philosopher's stone should be kept a secret at all costs.

"When I was bitten, Dumbledore's phoenix was there and could have healed me with its tears, but to my immense surprise, it refused to heal me. It was then that it dawned on me that Dumbledore wanted me dead. Foolishly, I thought I still had my family. Fortunately for me, my brother destroyed that thought too, when he was sure that I was not going to survive and kicking me, he revealed that it was all a well thought out plan by Dumbledore and the Potters to make sure that I didn't live to see another day."

Harry didn't need to look at the crowd to know that they were outraged and angry that someone did this to one of their own. "They wanted me dead so that Eric would become the heir of the 'Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter' because they knew grandfather would never choose him as the heir as long as I was alive. My death would have also given them the perfect scapegoat for the Chamber of Secrets incident; after all who wouldn't believe that a Slytherin and a Parseltongue was the culprit for unleashing a basilisk on the muggleborns."

Harry, from the corner of his eye, could see Daphne clenching and unclenching her hands in anger; he decided that he needed to wrap his speech up quickly and have a talk with her. He looked back to the Slytherins and continued, "But unfortunately for them, my desperation to live proved enough for my family magic to react with my Potter magic and save my life. I was in coma for nine months and once I was awake and healthy enough to move, I visited the goblins and they revealed my heritage to me. Once I wore the heirs' ring they also informed me of another living relative," Harry turned towards Elena and put his hand around her waist, "Elena Slytherin. Elena is the last living survivor of Slytherin line that branched some time ago from the main line. They were aware of their heritage and were in hiding so that no one found out about them. I contacted her through goblins and told her to meet me. After the meeting, she decided to live with me and help me to achieve my goals."

Elena was once again uncomfortable at being the center of attention but presented a strong front for others to see. Harry, sensing her nervousness leaking through the bond, came to her rescue and asked, "Do you have any questions?"

Ophelia Warbeck, a seventh year, came forward, on receiving a 'go on' motion from Harry asked, "Who was responsible for attacks on muggleborns?"

Harry smirked at her question and answered, "Which family other than the Potters, do you think Dumbledore will go as far as getting me killed?"A lot of eyes widened at hearing this, and Harry continued with a sad smirk, "As some of you have already guessed, the Weasleys. Ginevra Weasley was responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets, the result of being possessed by an enchanted diary of Tom Riddle."

Ophelia nodded, "So, he decided to sacrifice you to save the Boy-Who-Lived's girlfriend." This time, it was Harry's turn to be surprised. He didn't know that Eric and Ginny were in a relationship. Ophelia, upon recognizing the surprised expression on his face, explained, "Eric and Ginny made their relationship public at the beginning of the last school year, though it was more like Eric leading Ginny everywhere while she looked at him like he was the next coming of Merlin."

Harry decided to not bother himself with this little _brother's_ love life and just nodded, "Any more questions?"

A small boy with blonde hair and brown eyes, possibly a first or second year, raised his hand; Harry nodded at him to ask the question, "What happened to the basilisk?"

"The basilisk met an untimely demise by Elena's hand when it tried to eat me, and before you get your panties in a twist for killing Salazar Slytherin's basilisk, you should know that Salazar was not even sad at the basilisk's death. In his own words, 'a living heir is a hundred times better than a half-mad basilisk.'"

"What do you mean by half-mad?"Someone asked from the backside.

"The basilisk ignored whatever was being said to it in Parseltongue and you should know a sane snake could never ignore a command given in Parseltongue."

Casting a quick 'tempus,' showed Harry that it was ten past eleven; he decided that it was getting late. "I think that's enough information for a single night." Harry turned towards Snape and continued, "I am so sorry for interrupting the annual house meeting and taking up your valuable time. If it isn't much of a bother then could we keep the meeting again tomorrow morning?"

Snape just nodded at the request as the meeting was going to be held tomorrow anyway. The rest of the Slytherins, seeing that the meeting was over, went back to their dorms to think about what they had discovered that evening.

Harry's eyes searched out Daphne in the crowd and found her standing near the staircase to the boy's dorms, probably waiting for him. He gestured for Elena to follow him and went towards Daphne. When he reached her, Daphne noticed him but kept silent and just motioned him with a hand to move ahead towards the boy's dorms.

Harry, mimicking her gesture, shook his head and pointed towards the wall where he had entered the Common Room and started to walk towards seeing him go towards the wall huffed and followed him. Harry could feel the eyes of almost all the students left in the Common Room following their every move but ignored them. When Harry reached the wall, he pressed his Slytherin Ring onto it and watched as it melted onto itself, revealing a door. Harry entered the room, being closely followed by Elena and Daphne.

* * *

Dumbledore sat on his royal golden chair, observing the students gathered in the Great Hall with a grandfatherly smile on his face, the customary twinkle missing from his eyes. His eyes kept flicking back to the empty Slytherin table. The other three houses had also noticed their absence, and Dumbledore could hear the rumors (ranging from genocide to an unannounced house trip to Hogsmeade) flowing in the Great Hall. While on the outside he looked calm and collected, on the inside his brilliant mind was going through all of the possible scenarios.

Usually, the absence of Slytherins wouldn't have been much of a worry, but last night he had found that somehow the wards around the Dungeons had been separated from the main ward matrix. When he had gone to investigate, fearing the worst (that someone had managed to destroy the wards), he found that the wards were at full strength and were just separated from rest of them wards. The most worrisome thing about the whole scenario was that his connection had been cut from the separated wards.

Severus Snape was another thing in his growing list of worries. Severus hadn't reported back to him last night like he had been doing since he began his teaching career in 1982. He turned towards the empty chair on the head table, where Severus usually sat and frowned. Loss of the connection to wards had also crippled his spy network inside Hogwarts, the portraits in the dungeons had stopped reporting to him and he hadn't been able to get any information on any of the Slytherins last night. It was purely by luck that a portrait just outside the limit of separated wards had seen Severus returning back to his room while whistling a merry tune and giggling. That fact alone had started ringing a warning bell is Albus' mind, but he had decided to ask Severus when he next saw him.

He had a bad feeling about the situation and knew that he wasn't going to like the reason for this whole debacle. The feeling only intensified as the doors of Great Hall opened and he saw all of the Slytherins entering the Great Hall in a line, showing a grace that he had never thought he would see in his students, other than at the Ministry Ball. The rest of the school was watching in surprise and fascination as every single one of the Slytherins sat on their seats elegantly and looked towards the gate in unison as if expecting something to happen. Dumbledore used his occlumency skills to force down his nervousness and looked at the closed oak doors of the Great Hall and waited for something to happen.

The door opened with a bang and Dumbledore resisted the urge to jump up from his seat and attack whoever came through it. He discretely wiped the sweat from his face when Snape entered the Hall with his infamous sneer firmly in place. This whole situation was making him nervous, a thing he hadn't truly felt since the last war.

Snape's sneer grew even more pronounced when he saw that everyone was looking at him. "What? Is there something on my face?" Everyone quickly looked away not wanting to gain Snape's ire. "And fifty points from Gryffindor for trying to make a professor uncomfortable and failing spectacularly at it." He smirked at the shouts of outrage from Gryffindor table and took his seat at the head table. Dumbledore was the only one, being a master of Occlumency and legilimency himself, who was able to see the amusement and anticipation in Snape's eyes. He had no idea what Snape was anticipating but he doubted he was going to like it.

His feelings returned tenfold when the door opened once again. Even with his more than impressive hold on his emotions, he couldn't stop the words, "Well, shit!" from escaping his mouth, with a look of horror and surprise etched on his face at seeing an alive and healthy Harry Potter standing in the doorway, looking at him with an amused smirk etched onto his face. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Lily Potter fainting in James' arms.

This wasn't going to end well for him.

 **A/N: Sorry for taking so long to post this chapter. This chapter didn't come half as good as I had planned and I blame it on my distracted state while typing. Hopefully, I will do better in next chapters. If you find any mistakes or have any suggestions write it in reviews or PM me.**

 **This fiction crossed 1k mark in follows and I still can't believe it. I never thought that this fiction will cross 1k mark in follows in its 4th chapter.** **Thank you, everyone, who liked my story enough to follow it.**

 **If you have any questions feel free to PM me. And don't forget to drop a review. Reviews are the only thing that I request from my readers in return, So please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**6.**

"Speech"

'Thought'

 _"Parseltongue"_

 _ **"Spells"**_

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

* * *

"Well, Shit!"

Harry didn't bother to hide his amusement at the shocked faces of his tormentors and relished in the fear they had on their faces, though Lily's fainting was a bit disappointing. He carefully buried the rage he was feeling after seeing the faces of his father, mother, and Dumbledore in the deep recesses of his mind. He had to handle the whole situation carefully to get the outcome he wanted. He looked at the Slytherin table from the corner of his eyes and saw that they were all, in fact, ready (and willing for the most part) to do their part at his signal.

Harry's attention was drawn to the staff table when he saw the Professors' drawing their wands. He quickly cast a **_'Protego Maxima'_** ; a purple colored shield appeared in existence just in time to block more than a dozen spells. Harry discretely gave a signal to Slytherins from his left hand.

As soon as the Slytherins saw the discrete signal that Harry made, they quickly stood up on their feet and pointed their wands at the professors (except Snape who was standing at some distance from others smirking) who were attacking Harry. Malfoy and some others tried to show some defiance by not pulling out their wands in Harry's defense but a glare from nearby seventh years quickly changed their minds.

Professors stopped casting spells as soon as they saw the whole Slytherin house point their wands at the staff table, whether they were overcome by the shock that a whole house would dare to stand against them or they were intimidated into submission, nobody knew.

Harry didn't drop the shield even when the barrage of spells stopped, though the battered shield was not going to survive if it encountered more than a few spells in the next minute. Most of the Gryffindors quickly recovered from the shock and pointed their wands towards Slytherins in the Professors' defense, while Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs choose to be outside observers to the brewing conflict. Though Harry doubted that professors' defense was the main reason for Gryffindors pointing their wands at Slytherins, it was more the case of 'Slytherins are pointing their wands at staff members so we should point our wands at them and teach them a lesson.'

Before spells actually started to fly, Dumbledore intervened, "That's enough! There will be no infighting in this school." He released his magic and a shining white aura manifested around him while an invisible weight settled upon everyone's shoulders, pulling them down as if they were in increased gravity. "Never in my long tenure as the headmaster of this school, so many students have shown such disrespect to teachers and whole houses have pointed their wands at each other."

Seeing Dumbledore easily guilt tripping so many students while forcing others into submission, Harry had to concede the fact that the old man was his most dangerous enemy at the moment. He had partially shrugged off the shock of seeing him alive and had once again adopted his grandfatherly persona. Harry easily shrugged off the effect of Dumbledore's magical aura and observed others' reaction. Upper year Slytherins were handling the situation a lot better than others, they only had some barely-visible drops of sweat on their foreheads instead of the visibly shaking, panting and gasping for breath like many others. Their exposure to his magical aura had made them a bit more tolerant than others, it seemed.

Harry ignored the people on the staff table lest he lost control. Harry decided to intervene before the old man could get any more time to recover, "Excuse me, Headmaster. What I want to know is why was I attacked in the first place?"

Minerva McGonagall's whole body was shaking from anger at seeing the boy responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets and attacking muggleborns, and his question broke whatever restraint she had on her anger. "How dare you show your face here and ask questions like that, after what you…"

"Enough, Minerva," Minerva turned towards Dumbledore with a shocked look on her face but Dumbledore ignored her and kept looking at Harry. "Mr. Potter, perhaps it would be better if we take this to my office."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the request before he shook his head, "No, I don't feel comfortable enough to talk with you in your office after almost every other teacher attacked me at first sight."

"Why you.. "James started but a glare from Dumbledore silenced him.

Dumbledore ignored the pointed look he received from Harry and gave Harry his best grandfatherly smile he could muster under the circumstances, "I insist that we continue this conversation in my office."

Harry just gave Dumbledore a flat stare and replied, "Insist all you want but I won't go with you to your office. Why are you not answering here anyway? It's not like I asked you a huge secret. I just want to know why I was attacked without any provocation on my part."

Before Dumbledore could say anything Ron Weasley stood from his seat and shouted, "Because you are an evil slimy Slytherin and you were respon..."

Dumbledore quickly silenced Ron but when he kept shouting something even when he was silenced, Dumbledore shouted "Enough Mr. Weasley. Thirty points from Gryffindor for speaking out of turn." After glaring at Ron, who was quickly pulled down by a pale-faced Eric Potter, for good measure, he returned his attention to Harry Potter and gave him a hard look, "I assure you that I have several reasons for not answering you here. I.."

He was interrupted by a loud gasp from Harry, who looked like he had seen a ghost, and followed where he was looking. Dumbledore paled when he saw that Harry was looking at Eric and Ginny Weasley. He silently prayed that Harry doesn't say anything about them in front of so many students. A lot of students already suspected foul play in the events of Chamber of Secrets, and if Harry decided to say anything then he won't be able to make the students believe otherwise.

Dumbledore held his breath when Harry turned his head towards Dumbledore his eyes flashing with rage and hissed, "Dumbledore, can you tell me why Eric and Ginny are seated at Gryffindor table instead of rotting in Azkaban for what they did?" He ignored the outraged shouts from other professors and students for disrespecting Dumbledore and continued, "And why are you stopping others from speaking when they obviously want to blame me for something?" Harry finished while staring directly into Dumbledore's eyes.

Since the beginning, Dumbledore was trying to maintain eye contact with Harry but Harry had been careful to not keep eye contact long enough for him to try legilimency. So, when he saw that Harry was maintaining eye contact with him, he thought that Harry had slipped in his rage and quickly sent a legilimency probe with the subtlety of a charging bull. He had every intention of finding out how Harry survived when even Fawkes had thought that he was dead or at the very least damage his mind if he could not find something useful. If the damage became permanent then he wouldn't have to worry about Harry anymore and even if it was not permanent then he will get enough time to do damage control and obliviate Harry.

Harry mentally smirked at Dumbledore's predictability and gently wrapped his magic around the probe and gave a tug. Dumbledore was shocked when he felt a tug at his probe while he was hammering down on Harry's surprisingly strong and remarkable occlumency shields. He quickly tried to release the probe but was not really quick enough and felt a retaliatory probe from Harry slipping through his shields.

Harry quickly slipped through Dumbledore's shields while following Dumbledore's probe. While his occlumency was not very strong, legilimency was what he excelled in. Not wanting to spend more time than necessary in Dumbledore's mind, he quickly left after leaving the message that he wanted to make a deal.

Dumbledore stopped trying to remove Harry from his mind after he felt Harry withdrawing after leaving a message about wanting to make a deal. He took a deep breath before releasing it. His grandfatherly persona slipped on his face though his smile looked a lot strained and said, "Why don't we go to my office? I will explain everything to you."

Harry kept silent for a few minutes before nodding slowly, "Very well."

Dumbledore quickly started towards the door, his impressive mind working a mile a minute to figure out Harry's game. Before he could reach anything conclusive, he was distracted by Harry's voice saying, "Dumbledore, I don't think it is necessary to bring your entourage with you."

Dumbledore quickly turned around to see Moody, McGonagall, Snape, and James, who had left Lily in Sinistra's care, following him. He raised a single eyebrow at them before turning towards Harry with a frown on his face, "I don't think that there is any problem with them joining us in the office."

"I beg to differ," Harry retorted without missing a beat, "No offense professors but I don't feel comfortable with the prospect of spending time with the people who have attacked me not even fifteen minutes ago."

A lot of students gasped at hearing Harry refuse to be in the same room as Professors. Dumbledore hearing the students gasp realized that they were still in the presence of other students quickly agreed and with a look to the fuming (or in Severus's case, stonily faced with a barely there smirk on his face) professors marched out of the room. Harry followed him after giving a slight nod to Slytherins, who were still ready to defend him.

As they moved towards Dumbledore's office, Dumbledore was fighting an internal conflict within himself. As much as he wanted to know how Harry survived, he couldn't simply disregard that Harry could destroy a lot of his plan by simply telling others of his part in Harry's near brush with death. While he had full confidence in his legilimency skills with elder wand, the ease with which Harry had stopped and even returned his earlier attack with an unknown technique made him hesitate in doing the second attack. He looked over his shoulder to see Harry looking at the portraits while following him. Seeing Harry in a distracted state, he made his decision and quickly turned around with elder wand in hand.

Harry turned around to see Dumbledore pointing his wand between Harry's eyes and glaring at him with an emotionless face. Harry slowly raised both of his hands to show that he was surrendering. Dumbledore kept his emotionless mask for a few moments before his grandfatherly mask slipped on his face and he looked at Harry with eyes full of disappointment and sighed, "Now that we have established that I am in charge here, why don't you answer a few of my questions, Harry?"

Harry who was looking nervously at the wand point asked, "And what questions would that be Dumbledore?"

"How did you survive? I saw the whole incident in my pensieve and even Fawkes was sure that you were going to die."

Harry nervously looked around to see if anyone was there but a look of disappointment appeared on his face when he only saw portraits in the hallway, he took a deep breath before his face was set in determination and answered, "Why should I?"

Dumbledore looked at Harry in amusement and answered, "You should answer my question truthfully because you don't have any choice. I could do anything to you here and can get away by simply stating self-defense. Who do you think people will believe, me, the leader of light or you, The Heir of Slytherin?"

Dumbledore was surprised when instead of the nervous answer he was hoping for, Harry started chuckling and his mask of determination cracked to show him smirking with dark amusement in his eyes. Harry looked at him in the eyes daring him to use legilimency again before saying, "That would have been true, had your initial assumption that you were in charge correct," Dumbledore felt a wand poke him at the back of his head, and he suddenly realized that he was not alone with Harry like he had assumed. He cursed himself for getting careless and glared at Harry with every bit of hate he could muster. He felt another poke in the back of his head and slowly lowered his wand but not before casting a wandless _'Oculomagi'_ charm at his glasses to see the intruder.

As soon as Dumbledore saw Harry relax, he cast a wandless banisher at Harry while simultaneously ducking his head. He turned around with the speed that should be impossible for someone of his age and pointed his wand where he thought the intruder was, only to be surprised when he couldn't see anyone. He once again cast the charm on his glasses this time with elder wand, only to receive the same result. Before he could cast any other spell or charm his wand was snatched away.

Harry had felt a small magical spike from Dumbledore before he cast the banisher and had managed to erect a weak wandless shield between himself and Dumbledore. When he looked at Dumbledore, he had to stifle a chuckle at the surprise etched on his face when he couldn't find anyone else in the hallway. Using it to his benefit he had quickly snatched Dumbledore's wand from his hand. As soon as the wand was in his hand, he felt raw power course through his body. While it was hard to describe, if asked Harry would say it was as if a comforting yet fierce warmness had spread through his entire body starting from his hand holding the wand. It was like he had finally found a missing part of his soul that he never knew was missing. The reaction of this wand was a lot more intense compared to his old wand. Surprised by the odd occurrence, he filed the information away to run by Salazar and his grandfather later and observed the wand closely.

It was a unique wand, particularly because of the carvings that resembled a cluster of elderberries running down its length. He could feel the magic thrumming inside it ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice. Before he could study it more closely, he had to move back to avoid it being taken by Dumbledore.

"Now-now Dumbledore, there is no need to get aggressive, We are all intelligent people here, so we should deal with matters in civilized manner instead of using force like you just tried," He smirked at the look of fury that appeared on Dumbledore's face due to his mocking and continued, "And you should know better than to attack the heir of a Most Ancient and Noble House without any provocation. Before you do any more foolish things lets go to your office."

Dumbledore gave a stiff nod at the thinly veiled demand and started moving towards his office while keeping his senses open for any sign of Harry's invisible accomplice. He was stumped about the reason why he couldn't see the invisible person even after casting the ' _Oculomagi_ ' charm with the elder wand. The only artifact that could do give such an invisibility was safely locked in James trunk from where only he and James can take it out. He was quite sure that James would never give the artifact to Harry even if he was in dark about its real nature.

Thinking of the Elder wand made him look back at Harry who was twirling the precious artifact in his hand. He sighed loudly at Elder wand's unfaithfulness, even after being with him for almost half a century it changed its allegiance as soon as someone snatched it away from him. Thankfully, Harry didn't recognize the wand as a Deathly Hallow. So, the situation was still recoverable, now he will just have to disarm Harry to make the Hallow his own again.

Rest of the walk to Dumbledore's office was completely silent. Both Harry and Dumbledore spent their time making plans to deal with the upcoming meeting. Once they reached the Headmaster's office, Dumbledore made himself comfortable in his chair and observed Harry's reaction at seeing his office for the first time. His curiosity in Harry grew even more, when unlike other students who enter his office for the first time; Harry just gave a cursory glance to his office like he had been in places like this before. Unknown to him, Harry's standard of getting awed has increased dramatically after living in Salazar's personal chambers. Harry looked around like he was searching for something, most probably Fawkes before he sat on the chair on the opposite side of Dumbledore. Dumbledore looked around once more for any sign of the invisible witch or wizard but couldn't find any.

"Mr. Potter, now that we have reached my office, please return my wand," ordered Dumbledore. It showed how much tense Dumbledore was when he didn't even look at his favorite lemon drop's bowl, nor did he thought about offering one to Harry as he usually did when having a meeting in his office.

Harry raised an eyebrow at Dumbledore's sudden change in attitude before he shook his head, "No, I don't think so Headmaster. Who knows what you will do once you have your wand back? Now let's cut the chase and get to the point. You tried to get me killed and then framed me for releasing a Basilisk and attacking the students with it. Unluckily for you, though, I survived."

This time it was Dumbledore's turn to raise an eyebrow, "Really Harry? I thought you knew better than blaming the Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump for the supposed murder attempt on yourself. Did anyone cast any spells on you, Harry, while you were in the chamber? Or perhaps someone gave you a cursed object? We both know that you were dying due to Basilisk poison and I should also add that you were bitten by the Basilisk that the whole wizarding world thinks was under your control. All that is left is Eric's confession, which while I admit was very foolish of him, could be simply called as your delusional thinking due to the basilisk venom in your veins," Dumbledore looked at Harry with glee in his eyes like he already knew that he has won and continued, "No one is going to believe your word over mine and Eric's, Harry, no one. If you are thinking about Veritaserum, you should know it is prohibited to use on minors and someone of my status."

Harry just shook his head, "You are underestimating me and overestimating your influence Dumbledore. While I admit, rest of the world won't believe me over you, but what about the students in this school. A lot of them already don't believe your version of events even right now, so what exactly do you think will happen if I gave them my own with a magical oath? Do you think they will still believe in you? Your positive image along with Eric's will be destroyed. Then they will surely tell their parents about it, while I admit a lot of them won't believe it, few of them will and it will decrease your support base," Harry leaned forward and his voice dropped to almost a whisper but it was still very loud in Dumbledore's ears, "And you don't want that, do you? Especially, when Voldemort is regaining his strength with each passing day and will undoubtedly be back in a year or two."

Dumbledore slumped back in his chair at hearing the end, somehow Harry Potter knew about Tom's eminent return. Dumbledore still tried one last attempt to stop Harry without making any deal, "You would indirectly help your Grandmother's killer by not forgiving us. I know that Dorea will be extremely disappointed."

Hearing his grandmother's name from Dumbledore almost made him lose his cool, get up and curse the old manipulator, it was only due to the comforting feeling of Elena's hand on his shoulder did he somehow manage to resist the urge. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the way Harry relaxed but didn't comment on it. After making sure that he was once again thinking clearly, Harry replied, "You never asked for forgiveness Dumbledore, not that I would have given it, but the point is you don't regret the decision you took on that day. The only thing you might be regretting was that you didn't make sure that I was dead before collapsing the entrance," he didn't need to see Dumbledore, to know that he was giving Harry a defiant stare, "You are still trying to manipulate me by using my grandmother's name. In my eyes, both you and Voldemort are almost same. "Dumbledore flinched at the comparison and the pressure in the room increased rapidly as Dumbledore started to leak his own magic into the very air to show his displeasure. Harry ignoring the effect of Dumbledore's magic continued, "Both of you tried to kill me. The only difference is, he had the guts to come after me himself unlike you who chose to not get your own hands dirty."

Dumbledore took a deep breath and slowly reigned in his magic before speaking in such a cold voice that Harry had never heard from him before, "Never compare me to Voldemort again or you won't like the consequences."

Harry didn't let a hint of how deeply unnerved he was from Dumbledore's tone; show on his face. He thanked Salazar mentally, for teaching him some finer points of occlumency. Without it, he had no doubt that his complexion would have resembled a corpse. Even if he was a powerful teenager, he was a teenager nonetheless, and when the alleged most powerful wizard of your time threatened you, it was easy to lose composure. Harry, though, didn't back down and retorted, "I am only expressing my thoughts on the matter, Headmaster. If you don't like it, that's not my problem."

Dumbledore kept looking at Harry for few moments before letting out a sigh and leaned back in his chair, "What do you want Harry?"

Harry relaxed in his chair and thought over his demands in his mind one more time before answering, "I want a magical oath that you won't interfere with my education, you will allow me to go outside Hogwarts whenever I want. I also want unrestricted access to the restricted section of the library, immunity from detentions and right to retaliate when someone attacks me."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the simple demands before giving a nod. Harry's demands were very simple in contrast of what Dumbledore was hoping. He had no doubt that every student in the Hogwarts would want what Harry was asking for and could be considered childish whims of a teenager. Either Harry was planning something that he didn't know, which was highly probable given last night's odd occurrences or he simply wanted to tell that he didn't want to stand in Dumbledore's path and was just trying to get something out of the situation like a Slytherin. Dumbledore didn't see why he shouldn't agree to Harry's demands. After all, he could have demanded many different things like training or books from his personal library.

Dumbledore looked in Harry's cold eyes, and not for first time in the duration of meeting cursed mentally for not knowing what was going inside Harry's head. "Very well, I agree to your demands. In return, you will swear a magical oath that you won't tell anyone anything about the whole Chamber of Secrets ordeal which will paint the Potters', Weasleys' and me in a bad light and."

Harry shook his head, "I agree to take the oath that I won't tell anyone about your part in the whole ordeal unless someone whom I consider a friend asks me about it, after making sure that he or she won't tell anyone or if I am getting convicted for the opening of Chamber of Secrets and the attacks on students by the Basilisk."

"I can't let you tell anyone else, Harry."

"I don't care, Dumbledore," Harry retorted. "The deal is final, take it or leave it. Rest assured that I have no intention of using this ordeal to tarnish your reputation in the future."

"What about those who already know? I have no doubt you have already told others."

"I have made sure that they can't tell anyone, who is not in the know, about it. The only exception is my Grandfather. Knowing that you trust me as much as I trust you, I am willing to take a magical vow."

Dumbledore stared into Harry's eyes for few moments before giving a reluctant nod. A lot of things have suddenly started to fall into place and he could almost see the full picture now. Charles' strange behavior could be easily explained now. A lot of things were spinning out of control and he had no doubt he would have to do a lot of damage control. Since Charles now knew about their hand in Harry's near death, he will never make Eric his heir. The Potter seats in Wizengamot were forever out of their reach. He decided to think about it later and concentrate on the current meeting. If Charles hadn't taken any action until now, then it meant he was leaving the retaliation to Harry or was unwilling to take any action against his son and grandson. Charles was still a loose end; he will have to make sure that Charles doesn't tell anyone.

Harry smirked at the constipated look on Dumbledore's face, "Now that you have agreed, let's go over the wording of vows."

Harry and Dumbledore wrote the vows on a parchment before rechecking the wording to make sure that they took correct vows. After that, they exchanged the parchments so that both Harry and Dumbledore were sure that the other one took the correct vow.

"Hand over my wand Harry," requested Dumbledore.

Harry looked up from the parchment that he was reading. "Why?"

"To take my oath of course," replied Dumbledore like it was obvious.

Harry smirked, "I would have been a lot more inclined to believe it if I hadn't seen you casting a wandless banisher."

Dumbledore cursed in his mind. He wanted his wandless magic to be a secret, as it is most useful in catching his opponents off guard. He had used it in front of Harry and his accomplice only because he was sure he could have easily subdued them and obliviated the knowledge from their minds. He gave a long sigh before taking the vow, a bright flash of light showed that the vow had been taken. Harry, seeing that Dumbledore had taken the vow, did the same.

Harry, seeing that there was no need to be in Dumbledore's office anymore, got up to leave but was stopped by Dumbledore, "Harry, my boy, perhaps we should come up with an acceptable story, as the students will no doubt demand to know what really happened in the Chamber of Secrets."

Harry twitched at the way Dumbledore addressed him but let it go, "just tell them that we don't know who the heir really was. If asked why you blamed me, tell them that the heir was polyjuiced as me and tricked Eric into believing that I was the Heir of Slytherin. The imposter also imprisoned me in one of the unused classrooms with some type of wards. After about a year of his death, the wards collapsed and I was able to escape. And make sure that they know that I was not responsible for the Basilisk attacks in any way."

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, "A lot of students and teachers won't believe it."

"It doesn't matter whether they believe it or not. It's not like anyone who knows what really happened is going to babble," retorted Harry. "Do you have anything else to discuss?"

"What about your studies? You missed a whole year," pointed out Dumbledore.

"I have already taken the end of the year exams of my fourth year in ministry. You can easily get my results from there. I will be taking fifth-year classes." Harry got up from his chair and started moving towards the door. He opened the door to let Elena out before turning towards Dumbledore. "Know this Dumbledore, as long as you don't stand in my path, I won't do the same. Don't misunderstand my today's actions; I did what I had to do to make sure that you don't interfere with my life."

Harry tossed the elder wand back to Dumbledore, who was a bit surprised by his words before leaving the room without turning his back to Dumbledore. As much he liked the wand Harry knew Dumbledore will never let him keep it and it's not like his own wasn't working properly.

Dumbledore while a bit surprised from Harry's words quickly got over it and sent a 'Patronus' to James. The way Harry relaxed after almost losing his cool in the middle of the meeting when Dumbledore spoke about Dorea could only be done by the touch of a girl, whom Harry was in a relationship with. Dumbledore had seen the same behavior between couples numerous times and knew he could unmistakably recognize one when he saw one. The only girls he knew who Harry was close with were Daphne Greengrass and her sister. According to Severus, Elder Greengrass sister was out of the country, so, Daphne was his best lead at the moment.

Dumbledore pulled out his pensive before pressing the tip of Elder Wand to his temple before slowly pulling it away. A thin silvery thread emerged from his temple and he carefully dropped it in his pensive. He decided to take a look at the whole meeting from an outsider's perspective while he waited for others to arrive. Dumbledore dipped his finger in the pensieve and let his conscious enter the pensive. A mental command from him made the events go faster.

The more Dumbledore watched the more he was getting sure that he was made to dance on Harry's tune without him knowing. The whole meeting went according to Harry's plan. It was like he had predicted Dumbledore's move before he even made them and got away with things he wanted. The most frustrating thing was he couldn't decide what the motive behind his demands was. If Harry had planned so much, he could have surely demanded a lot more things, why settle for simple school related things?

How was Harry able to enter Hogwarts without the knowledge of Dumbledore? Was he responsible for the separation of wards surrounding Slytherin common room and dungeons? If yes, then how did he do it? And the most important question, how did he survive? So many questions without any answers, it was frustrating him to no end. To a man who took pride in himself for holding all the cards; this was nothing short of a disaster.

A ping from the wards informed him of the coming visitors. He emerged from the pensieve and put it back in its place before settling in his chair. There was a knock on the door. Dumbledore used Occlumency to clear his mind to prepare for the next meeting before answering, "Come in."

As soon as Dumbledore gave permission to enter his office, James Potter followed by Minerva McGonagall, Alastor Moody, Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, Lily Potter, who had recovered from her fainting, and finally Severus Snape entered his office. James and Lily quickly settled themselves in the chairs opposite to Dumbledore while others opted to keep standing.

There was a brief tense silence which was broken by McGonagall, "Albus, what happened? Where is Harry Potter?"

Dumbledore gave a long world-weary sigh before answering, "Mr. Potter is on his way to or he is already in Slytherin common room." Dumbledore raised his hand to stop other's protest and continued lying through his teeth, "I had no choice other than to let him go. All of you saw how other Slytherins were willing to attack us when we attacked him in morning. He had the backing of the whole Slytherin house and I am not willing to alienate or worse make all the Slytherin students leave the school, just because I expelled him."

McGonagall gave him a sharp look, "Surely you don't mean to just let him go without any punishment? And while the behavior of Slytherins," she gave Severus a look of barely disguised loathing and contempt, "this morning was disgraceful, their parents will never let pull out their children from Hogwarts."

"We can always involve DMLE and get him convicted for the attacks," added Flitwick.

"Did you people already forget that he was the Heir of Slytherin?" snapped Dumbledore losing his cool. "Dark families will flock around him and protect him from any repercussions. We don't have any solid enough evidence to convict him. Add the fact he is also the Potter family heir which makes it impossible for us to use Veritaserum without the permission of Wizengamot. Wizengamot will never permit the use of Veritaserum on him seeing that he is the heir of a Most Ancient and Noble House and all the victims of petrifications were muggleborns and the less we say about Weasley family reputation in pureblood circle the better." Dumbledore, seeing that McGonagall and Flitwick were looking properly chastised, added, "It would be much better if he stays here in Hogwarts where I can keep an eye on him and stop his plots, rather than letting him run free in the wizarding world and do whatever he wished."

Barty Crouch jr., who was impersonating Moody, was keeping his silence since the beginning of the meeting raised an eyebrow at the news. He wasn't aware of anything that was being discussed, which could lead to a potential disaster. He vowed to get as much knowledge as he could get about past happenings in Hogwarts so that he didn't get caught flat-footed next time. The Dark Lord was also unaware of these things too, so he had to inform Dark Lord as soon as possible about the new developments.

"I will trust your wisdom on this matter, Albus," conceded McGonagall with Flitwick nodding his head. "But I am not happy with the outcome."

Dumbledore gave another long sigh before saying, "Neither am I Minerva, neither am I." Dumbledore turned towards Snape who was standing silently in the corner, "What I want to know is why you didn't inform me of happenings in the Slytherin common room, Severus? The behavior of Slytherins this morning showed that Harry had already met with all of them."

"I can't tell you about it," replied Severus.

James sneered from his seat, "Can't tell about it or won't tell about it, Snivellus."

Snape glared at James, "Surely, your pathetic tiny brain could tell the difference between can't and won't."

"What do you mean by you can't tell me about it, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, even though he had a good idea. Harry had said that he had made sure that the people whom he had told won't be able to speak about it to other people who did not know about it already.

"I think he means that he has already exchanged one master for another. Don't you Snape?" Moody butted in before Snape could answer.

Snape glared at the retired auror but backed down when he saw Moody take a threatening step towards him, his both normal and magical eyes locked at Snape's body. Snape turned towards Dumbledore before opening his mouth to speak but was unable to utter a word. He closed his mouth before speaking after a moment, "I am unable to speak about the happenings in Slytherin common room." Harry had already warned Snape in the morning while he was explaining his plan to others that something like this will happen. While it was embarrassing to follow the plan of a fifteen-year-old boy, the power and influence the boy will have in future made it a lot easier, and Dumbledore's face at seeing Harry in morning was more than worth following his plan.

Dumbledore sighed loudly "I suspected as much." Dumbledore made a mental note to research on mind related curses and other similar things. If he broke whatever was stopping Severus from telling others about the happenings in Slytherin common room, he will no doubt gain knowledge of what Harry was up to. How Harry came upon the knowledge of this type of magic was a worrying prospect. Others looked at him curiously but when he didn't elaborate they decided to drop the matter.

"Why did you ask us to question Miss Greengrass and take magical vows from her to not use a time turner?" Asked Sprout, she was still angry for taking a magical vow from Daphne Greengrass. She was against the idea of taking magical vows from a minor but was ruled out by other professors.

Dumbledore seemed to gain age as he leaned back in his chair. He looked at every other person in the eye before giving another long sigh, "Mr. Potter was not alone." Seeing that everybody was confused, he explained, "Mr. Potter had an invisible companion today. I have reasons to believe that the said invisible companion was a girl and she is in a relationship with Harry and I could think of nobody else who was close to Harry other than the Greengrass sisters. One of them is traveling the world, so, I suspected that it was Daphne Greengrass."

"How did she manage to remain unseen even by your eye?" Moody asked with surprise evident in his tone.

"I have a few guesses but nothing concrete yet. I was unable to see her even after casting an _'Oculomagi'_ charm on my glasses," answered Dumbledore.

"Ms. Greengrass didn't even protest at the idea of taking the magical vow. It was like she already knew what we were going to ask her," said Sprout.

Dumbledore resisted the urge to sigh once more; of course, Harry had probably suspected that they would question Greengrass. In hindsight, he should have known it was not Greengrass; she was too obvious of a choice. He looked at the Potter couple sitting in front of him before saying, "Everyone except Lily and James please leave us. I would like to have a word with them alone."

All of them gave a nod before walking out of the office. As soon as other Professors were out, Dumbledore waved his wand in a complex pattern and activated the Privacy wards of the Headmaster's office.

James Potter got up from his seat and started pacing furiously before asking, "How did he survive Albus? You were sure that he was dead."

"I don't have the slightest clue about the cause of his miraculous survival," answered Dumbledore.

"Is it possible that Fawkes's tears healed him?" questioned Lily; she was still feeling a bit overwhelmed from seeing her first child alive and well.

Dumbledore shook his head, "No, he was too far gone to survive with only phoenix tears. Also, Fawkes would have never cried on his wounds if there was even a slight chance of recovery with his tears."

"Maybe someone followed Eric and Harry down there, and saved the boy," suggested James.

"No, the wards that I had placed at the entrance of the bathroom would have notified me if any other person was there," Dumbledore retorted before giving James a furious glare, "Where is your invisibility cloak, James?"

James seemed to shrink in on himself at Dumbledore's glare and mumbled, "I returned it to my father."

"Do you have any idea what you have done?" Dumbledore demanded, "Charles gave the Cloak to Harry and it was because of that cloak, I was unable to obliviate him and had to make a deal with him to keep him silent." Dumbledore decided to not tell them about the elder wand; it would lead to some uncomfortable questions. There was no need to tell them about the existence of The Hallows yet.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked, with a confused expression on her face. "Can't you see through invisibility cloaks?"

This time Dumbledore was unable to resist the urge to sigh loudly, "That was a special cloak. Even I can't see through it and you just had to hand it back to Charles." Dumbledore massaged his temples and continued, "Why did you return it anyway?"

James looked a bit sheepish and embarrassed, "We had a row about making me or Eric, the Heir of House Potter a few months ago. It evolved into a shouting match and next the thing I know is that I am returning the heirlooms I had with me." Suddenly something seemed to click for James, "Wait! How were you able to see through the cloak when I used to wear it?"

"I had placed a tracking charm on the cloak in case someone stole the heirloom and I used to catch you with its help. Charles must have found the charm and removed it before giving it to Harry." Dumbledore answered before giving James a stern look, "Don't try to change the subject, James. Why was I not informed of this?"

"It didn't seem too important at that time," James replied lamely. Dumbledore just shook his head at James's idiocy.

"What was the outcome of the meeting? What did he want?" Lily asked as she tried to figure out what Harry wanted now.

"We made a deal. He wanted some school related privileges and a favor from me in return for not telling others about what really happened during the Chamber of Secrets ordeal," replied Dumbledore.

"Huh, just some privileges and a favor? Why? He could have demanded a lot of different things," questioned James.

"I don't know his motive behind such simple demands except for the favor; having a favor from an influential wizard like me will no doubt be helpful for anyone. I suspect he was trying to show that he is not an enemy, but I am not sure about it."

Lily hummed in agreement; Harry's demands didn't show his motive behind doing all of this. "So, what should be our next step?"

"We do nothing but observe for now," ordered Dumbledore. "I will deal with him at a suitable time. We should concentrate our efforts on improving Light side's reputation. I am going to file the paperwork Master-Apprentice bond between me and Eric in the ministry today. It should be in the newspapers tomorrow. I believe it will go a long way in distracting people from looking too deeply into the matter of The Chamber of Secrets."

James reluctantly nodded his head "Alright, we will do as you say." He looked uncomfortable for a second before asking, "What about the heirship? Dad will never make Eric or me, his heir as long as Harry is alive."

"There are other ways to get the heirship. We will make a plan once everything is settled down."

James and Lily nodded to show that they understood. They had waited for a long time, they could wait some more.

* * *

Once Harry stepped inside the Slytherin Common room he was unsurprised to find most of the Slytherins waiting there for him. He gave a cursory glance to all of the students present there before saying, "I don't think I need to say it but it was a wonderful performance during the breakfast. Thank you for following the plan that we discussed this morning. Without your help, my meeting with Dumbledore wouldn't have been so successful. I-"

"Shut up Half-blood!" shouted Draco Malfoy. Several Slytherins just face-palmed at his outburst, while others looked at him with emotions ranging from anger to amusement. Harry raised an eyebrow at the interruption and turned towards where Malfoy was standing. Seeing that Harry was quiet, Draco continued, "I don't care what happened in the meeting or how wonderful our performance was. Stop acting like the whole world revolves around you. We weren't even able to select the new leader this morning because you wanted us to be a part of your stupid plan. I also know how you tricked us last night into believing you were powerful."

Harry just gave an amused look to Draco and said, "Oh! Do tell. I believe others would want to know about it as well."

Malfoy puffed up his chest like a peacock before giving others a superior look and answering, "You used an illegal potion to give yourself such a strong magical aura."

"How did you reach this conclusion, Malfoy?"

"I asked my father about it," replied Draco like it was obvious.

Suddenly, it clicked in Harry's mind, how Malfoy was confident enough to confront Harry. It was also quite ingenious of him to circumvent the ward and ask about Magical aura when he couldn't ask or tell anyone anything related to Harry. Harry shook his head at Malfoy's idiocy, he should have gathered all the facts before confronting him, and with a barely hidden-patronizing tone, said, "You need to start thinking on your own and not run to your father for every small thing. You must have tried to tell him about me but when you found you couldn't, you asked about the thing that was bugging you the most, my magical aura. Because to you, there was no way a Half-Blood could be stronger than you, even if the said Half-Blood was not really a Half-Blood and a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin. Am I right?"

Draco nodded his head while a few upper years and quite a lot of lower years were staring at him incredulously, and replied, "Yes and I found out how you were projecting such a strong aura! And how dare you to activate a memory containment ward without our agreement. Wait till my father hears about this…"

"Draco! Draco! Draco! You never learn, do you? Always running to your father for everything. How will you tell him about the ward, when you can't tell anyone about the happening in this common room?" Harry shook his head before turning towards the other Slytherins and said, "I hope you remember what I said about you being a defective Gryffindor. Draco here is a prime example of it, while I commend him for not believing everything he sees and gathering information, he confronted me without checking whether his gathered facts were true or not, like a Gryffindor jumping headfirst without thinking."

Draco who was seething in rage at being disrespected shouted, "How dare you compare me to a Gryffindor!?"

Harry continued like he hadn't been interrupted, "Unfortunately for Draco, his gathered facts were wrong." Once again an immense weight settled on everyone's shoulder before disappearing like it never happened.

Draco who had been getting angrier as Harry continued to ignore him, finally snapped and whipped out his wand before casting a **' _Reducto_ '** in Harry's direction. Elena, who was watching the proceedings from the sidelines snapped out a **' _Protego_ '** charm to intercept the curse. Draco seeing his curse strike the shield without doing any visible damage snarled, "Stay out of this, bitch."

Every bit of amusement disappeared from Harry's face and he glared at Draco while pulling out his wand, "You really are a fool Draco, aren't you?"

"Says the one who keeps hiding behind a woman," snarled Draco, "I have had enough of you trying to show that you are stronger than me, I challenge you to an honor duel."

"You should think before opening your mouth Draco," chided Elena. "It could come to bite in your ass."

"Shut up, whore!" shouted Draco. "I always think things through before I say anything."

Almost every girl and many guys in the common room gasped at his offensive words while simultaneously rolling their eyes at the incredulity of his statement, considering what he had said not a minute ago. The Slytherins who were subtly moving away from Draco decided to drop the subtlety and quickly created enough distance from Draco, leaving only his close supporters near him. Elena didn't retort to the insult but her eyes showed that Draco was going to be in a world of pain whenever she got the opportunity.

Draco flinched when he saw Harry's cold eyes and felt the rising pressure in the common room but didn't back off. Harry kept silent for a few more moments before asking, "What are the stakes?"

"If I win, you will have to step down from the position of the lord of the House of Slytherin and make me its new lord when you receive your lordship and sign a betrothal contract between me and Elena."

Harry's magic spiked once again after hearing it but he controlled it and asked, "Alright and what will I get if I win?"

"If you win," Draco replied while stressing on word 'if' to show his utter disbelief at the fact that Harry thought he was going to win, "I will accept you as the heir of the House of Slytherin and won't challenge you for the heir or lord position ever again."

Harry raised an eyebrow at Draco's reply and retorted, "Really? I don't care whether you accept me as the heir or not. Contrary to what you have been led to believe Malfoy, you are not important enough for your opinion to matter to me."

"It shows what you know Half-Blood," sneered Draco. "I am the Heir of Noble House of Malfoy and the opinion of a Malfoy always matters."

Harry thought about reminding Draco that he was the heir of two houses before discarding the idea. The ideology that Malfoys are better than others was too deeply ingrained in him, so he will ignore that fact and concentrate on his Half-Blood status. Suddenly an idea struck him and after thinking it over he said, "I don't care about it Malfoy." He ignored the reddening of Draco's face and continued, "If I win, the Noble house of Malfoy will become a vassal of the House of Slytherin when you get the lordship and you will publically ask Elena for forgiveness."

"How dare you suggest this preposterous idea!? House of Malfoy will never be a vassal of any other house," shouted Malfoy.

"You should know the rules of Honor Duel, Malfoy especially the ones involving the heirs of different houses. If you want to duel me then you should be ready to give me something of comparable value of the House of Slytherin and you have only one thing that I am interested in. It's your choice Malfoy, do you agree or not?" Harry retorted.

"Draco, think of it in this way, the Noble House of Malfoy will only be a Vassal to the House of Slytherin if you lose. However, if you win you will not only be the heir of Noble House of Malfoy, you will also be the heir of House of Slytherin. Do you not think that you can win Draco?" goaded Elena.

"Of course, I will win," replied Draco. While Draco had a Superiority Complex of the size of Mount Everest, he wasn't in Slytherin just for saying, he was still apprehensive about putting his house on the line. However, the notion of becoming the heir of House of Slytherin along with the betrothal to Elena was too great to decline.

His mind was finally made up when Theodore Nott whispered in his ear, "Accept the stakes. Just don't make a magical vow or contract agreeing to the terms. This way even if you lose we will just say that you were joking. While you will lose some respect, you will remain the heir of Noble House of Malfoy. And if you win then we will force him to make you the heir of House of Slytherin even if we have to go to the Wizengamot for it."

Draco nodded his head, 'Yes, this is a fabulous idea. If I manage to win then the father will be very proud when I tell him what I did.' He turned towards Harry and said, "Alright. I agree to your terms."

Harry's smile turned predatory and said, "I knew you will agree to the terms, Draco. Now, let's…"

Before he could say anything else, he was interrupted by Elena when she leaned in and whispered, "Your grandfather must be worried about you. You should speak to him immediately."

Harry immediately turned his attention back to Draco, "Something important has come up and requires my attention immediately. So, we will hold our duel tonight. Take this time to prepare Draco because I won't be showing you mercy anytime soon." Once he said it, Harry quickly made his way to the hidden door that led to the Chamber of Secrets. Harry ignored the shouting from Draco about him being too afraid to fight Draco unprepared and whatnot and opened the door with a touch of his Slytherin heir ring.

Before he could enter, he saw Daphne entering the Common Room and called her, "Daphne! Come with me."

Daphne turned towards the direction Harry was calling from and saw that he and Elena were standing by the door to the Chamber of Secrets while waving at her to follow them. She gave a nod to Harry and started moving towards them while ignoring the jealousy filled glares she was being sent by other Slytherins. After all, she was probably the first non-parselmouth to ever enter the Chamber. Harry gave her a small smile and sidestepped to let her enter first. He and Elena followed after her. The walk to the Chamber of Secrets was passed in silence as each of them was lost in their own thoughts.

The group emerged from the passage in a small room with a dozen doors. Other than the doors there, the whole room was empty with only some torches on the walls for light. Elena immediately apparated out while Harry entered the door at the opposite side of the room followed by Daphne. Harry emerged in the study and made himself comfortable on a couch. He turned towards the door and saw Daphne standing there looking around with awe and wonder. It reminded him of a much younger Daphne who had the same look when she first saw the Hogwarts castle before she had to adopt her ice queen persona to protect her at school and home. Harry discretely wiped a tear from his eyes at the thought of Daphne's peril before coughing loudly.

Daphne's head snapped in Harry direction, her face flushed pink with embarrassment when she realized that she was caught gaping and being very decidedly non-Slytherin. She started walking towards him with accusation clear in her eyes, "You didn't tell me."

"What do you mean by I didn't tell you?" Harry asked, a picture of such utter innocence that even Daphne had to stop a second before shaking her head and continuing towards him.

Daphne, upon reaching the couch, jabbed a finger on Harry's chest and growled, "Don't try to be over smart with me, Harry James. You wanted me to look like a fool, didn't you?"

"No. I was going to tell you last night but we got distracted. So, I decided to surprise you," answered Harry.

"Don't lie to me Harry. I know you wanted to see me standing at the door gaping while you laughed mentally at my misfortune."

"Maybe."

"Next time you decide to hide things like this from me," Daphne pulled out her wand and pointed it at his crotch, "I am going to freeze your balls, Harry," warned Daphne.

Suddenly, she heard laughing from behind. Startled by the sound, she turned around; her wand pointed in the direction of the laugh. Once she saw that she was pointing her wand at a portrait of a distinctive looking elderly wizard, whom she immediately recognized as Salazar Slytherin from the unanimated portraits she had seen before, she bowed low and turned her head towards a snickering Harry's direction with a mortified expression on her face and whispered, "You planned all of this didn't you?"

Harry stopped snickering to answer with a nod before he once again started cackling loudly when he saw her face. Daphne just sighed loudly before turning her attention back to Salazar and bowed her head, "I apologize for my rude behavior," she shot a withering glare at the still laughing Harry and continued, "it's just that your heir is just too insufferable."

"At least both of you are still getting along," a familiar voice sounded from the direction of the door.

Daphne turned to the direction of the door and saw Charles Potter along with Elena standing there. Harry hurried towards Charles and gave him a short hug.

Daphne gave a nod to Salazar's portrait before going to greet Charles. Charles upon seeing Daphne gave her a small smile and pulled her into a short hug, surprising her, before she reciprocated, separating after a few moments.

"It's nice to meet you again Lord Potter," said Daphne with a small smile.

"What did I tell you about calling me, Lord Potter?" Charles asked.

"To not call you that, Lord Potter," answered Daphne with a smirk on her face.

"Then why do you call me that? I told you to call me Grandpa or Grandfather, did I not?" asked Charles in a mock-offended tone.

"It won't be proper to call you that, Lord Potter," replied Daphne, stony-faced while looking anywhere but in Charles's eyes.

Charles just sighed at her answer and dropped the topic as a lost cause. Every time he had met with Daphne, their conversation's beginning had remained the same. He would insist that she stop calling him by his title while she would stubbornly refuse to do exactly that. Maybe it was his inner matchmaker that wanted her to call him Grandfather or maybe he just wanted to let her know that she could consider him as a male parental figure in her life; even he didn't know the answer to the main reason he was compelled to do so. He was interrupted from his inner musing by the sound of clearing of a throat.

"Lord Slytherin," greeted Charles.

"Lord Potter," returned Salazar with a nod. He gave an annoyed look at Harry who was still engrossed in his own conversation with Elena before coughing loudly.

Harry who was talking with Elena about the small leather bound book she was carrying turned in the direction of coughing and saw Salazar looking at them impatiently. Harry just chuckled sheepishly and once again made himself comfortable on the couch with others doing the same. Elena took the adjacent seat of the couch on which Harry was sitting while Daphne and Charles took the couches on the right and left respectively.

Seeing that he had their total attention, Salazar said, "Now that the greetings are over, can we get to the reason why all of you are here?" After receiving nods from everyone he asked with a concerned voice, "What happened? Did everything go according to the plan?"

Harry was surprised by the concern, which looked quite out of place on the normal stoic face of his ancestor's portrait. It was the first time his ancestor ever showed open concern and it warmed his heart to know that now he had another person, even if he was just a portrait who cared for him. He shook his head to clear the thoughts and answered, "Yes, everything went according to the plan. Dumbledore was too surprised to outmaneuver me. He was even more wary of me after I used the legilimency trick you taught me, Salazar."

Salazar just nodded and said, "I don't think he will try to use legilimency on you again anytime soon."

"I agree. It made him wary enough that he tried to obliviate me even though he was very interested in how I survived the Basilisk bite."

"What!?" shouted both Daphne and Charles at the same time.

"Relax; I suspected something like that could happen. So, I had Elena following me under my invisibility cloak."

"Start from the beginning," ordered Charles.

Harry nodded and started telling them what happened from the beginning with Elena adding things from her own point of view. Daphne and Charles who didn't know the complete plan that the other three had hatched were extremely surprised by their daring move. Blackmailing and threatening the alleged most powerful wizard of this era was a very dangerous plan but no one could argue that it wasn't effective or that it didn't work. There was silence in the chamber for a few moments after Harry finished his tale before it was broken by Daphne.

"Dumbledore will probably take this as an insult and will retaliate," pointed out Daphne.

"While I agree that he will retaliate, he will wait for an opportune moment to do it. Even then I will have the advantage as he will underestimate me. At the moment, he probably considers me an annoying cockroach who he can deal with anytime he wants," retorted Harry.

"What about your family?" Daphne spoke the word family with so much disgust that it made Charles cringe.

"I will deal with them when I am ready to make my move, no need to tip my hand earlier. They will get what's coming to them in due time." Harry leaned forwards in Daphne's direction."I noticed that you were late in returning from Great Hall, Daphne. Did everything go well on your end?" asked Harry with concern evident in his voice.

"Yes, everything went well," replied Daphne while shifting to a more comfortable posture on the couch, "At the end of the Breakfast, James Potter received a Phoenix Patronus, probably from Dumbledore. After that, I was called to Professor McGonagall's office and had to give a magical vow that I am not in possession of a time turner and I will not use it today. James wanted to use Veritaserum on me to get information about you, but other professors who had followed us stopped him from doing it."

"It wouldn't have mattered even if they had used Veritaserum on you," said Salazar. "The ward Harry activated in the common room will stop you from telling anything that you learned there about him even under the compulsion of Veritaserum."

"Won't it make people suspicious if Slytherin Students are unable to tell others anything that's happening in Slytherin Dorms?" Charles asked.

Salazar shook his head, "I didn't call it one of my best wards for nothing. It filters memories based on the intent of caster or in this case Harry."

"It would be counterproductive as it would bring a lot of attention to the Slytherins if I blocked all their memories of Dungeons," Harry spoke up. "At the moment, the ward is stopping them from telling others anything related to me."

Elena nodded her head to show her agreement before turning towards Daphne. "Dumbledore probably suspected you to be Harry's invisible accomplice and warned others about you. However, to think James wanted to use Veritaserum on you," Elena shook her head at the notion, "he must be desperate. He must have known that using Veritaserum on a minor and said minor being the heiress of a Noble House, without the permission of Wizengamot is a criminal offense. I would have loved to see him try to weasel out of the charges."

Charles hummed in agreement and added, "While it is true that he would have been in trouble for using Veritaserum, don't underestimate Dumbledore and Eric's fame, Elena. James would have walked free after paying a minor fine."

"Well, he didn't use the Veritaserum," Harry butted in, "so; there is no need to think about it anymore. We should think about our next move."

"That reminds me," Charles picked up the book Elena had brought with herself and gave it to Harry, "you will find everything that has been documented by Peverells about Deathly Hallows in that book. That book was in the restricted section of The Potter Library, only for the eyes of the head of the House. It is the part of the Peverell legacy left by our ancestors."

Harry and Salazar's eyes widened with shock that such a book existed and was in Harry's hand. Daphne while shocked was confused when she saw the other's reaction. She like the majority of the wizarding world believed Deathly Hallows to be a myth but the reaction of Harry and Salazar and the existence of the book clearly showed that they were real. Elena who already knew of the existence of the book seeing the confused expression on Daphne's face mouthed 'later' before leaning over Harry's shoulder to read the book.

Next few minutes were passed in silence as Harry continued reading the book for any relevant information on the Hallows. Halfway through the book, Harry stiffened before sighing loudly and putting the book back on the table.

Elena, who was also reading the book just face-palmed before she started chuckling. Harry getting annoyed at her chucking discretely pinched her butt. Elena yelped loudly before glaring at him. But seeing the others looking at her with confusion she schooled her features while ignoring Harry's smirk.

"I have good news and bad news, what do you want to know first?" asked Harry.

Salazar narrowed his eyes before answering, "Bad news first."

"I know who has the Elder wand."

"What!?" shouted Salazar losing his composure at the thought of knowing the location of last Hallow before he remembered that this was a bad news at least according to his Heir, "Wait! How is that a bad news?"

Harry picked up the book and showed the picture of Elder wand to others and replied, "This is the same wand I had taken from Dumbledore earlier."

"Are you sure? It could have been a wand with a similar appearance," Charles questioned while trying to remember Dumbledore's wand and compare it with the picture on the book.

"Yes, I am sure," replied Harry. "Its shape is very distinctive and the rush of power I felt when I took the wand for the first time clearly showed that it's not a normal wand."

"I was going to bring it up, later but now that we are talking about Hallows," Elena spoke up while taking out the cloak from her pocket and placing it on the table. "You should know that the Invisibility Cloak also warmed up when you disarmed Dumbledore. I believe Dumbledore would have felt the surge of magic from the cloak if he was not distracted after getting disarmed."

"Dumbledore is using that wand ever since he disarmed his lover Grindelwald during Second World War. He…"

"Wait, wait, wait," Charles was interrupted by Daphne, who was speaking for the first time ever since the topic of Hallows was breached. "Dumbledore is gay!? And he was in a relationship with Dark Lord Grindelwald!? "

Charles started chuckling at Daphne's incredulous expression before replying, "Yes, he was in a relationship with Gellert Grindelwald before the death of his sister. Both of them were quite close at that time and were a believer of 'The Greater Good'. After the death of Dumbledore's sister, both of them had a falling out and went their separate ways."

"Why do we not know this?" Daphne asked while trying to wrap her mind around the fact Dumbledore and Grindelwald were lovers.

"As I said earlier, Dumbledore was a believer of The 'Greater Good'," answered Charles, he looked at others to see them paying full attention to him, even Harry and Elena to his surprise were listening attentively and thus came to the conclusion that Voldemort didn't know about this at the time he made his first Horcrux. "While Grindelwald chose to slaughter thousands for his vision of 'Greater Good' of society, Dumbledore choose to push the society towards his own vision, politically. After he defeated Grindelwald, he received the position of Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump. It also brought him under a lot of scrutiny from his opponents and political rivals. Fearing that all of his hard work would be undone if the true extent of his relationship with Grindelwald came to light, he obliviated, blackmailed and took vows of silence from anyone who had even the slightest idea. He had done quite a thorough job in it, that's why very few people know about it."

"How do you know about it?" Daphne asked, while her calculative mind was working a mile a minute on how to use this knowledge.

"I was told about it by Abeforth Dumbledore. Dumbledore wasn't able to force himself to obliviate his own brother, who was still angry at him for their sister's death."

"This information will be quite useful if we ever have need of discrediting Dumbledore," Elena pointed out.

"Certainly," agreed Harry. "But back to the matter at hand, what are the chances of Dumbledore not knowing the true nature of his wand?" asked Harry steering the conversation back towards the Elder wand.

"Extremely low," answered Charles. "From what I have gathered about his past, he was fascinated with The Hallows and had done a great deal of research about them. So, I doubt that he won't identify a Hallow when it's in his hand."

"Getting the wand from Dumbledore is not going to be easy if he knows that it is the Elder wand," Elena pointed out, her mind working furiously to find a way. "Even if you manage to disarm him like you did today, he will take the wand back from you even if he has to go to the Wizengamot for it."

Suddenly, Harry groaned loudly bringing the attention of others to him, "That means he now knows that I have the Invisibility Cloak."

Charles gave a nod, "Yes, without a doubt."

"It doesn't matter whether he knows about it or not, he would have found about it anyway," Salazar spoke up. "Now, what is the good news, Harry?"

Harry smirked, "I am already Elder wand's master." Seeing the confusion on their faces he elaborated, "Elder wand only changes its allegiance if it's taken forcefully. I became its new master when I disarmed Dumbledore and since, I just gave it back to Dumbledore; it didn't change its allegiance."

"What is the benefit of its allegiance when you don't have the wand?" Salazar pointed out.

"Elder wand won't work against me properly and I am immune to any lethal curse cast from that wand. There is a high chance that lethal curses will be rebound to the caster."

"That will give you an edge when dueling against Dumbledore," said Elena.

"Speaking of dueling, I believe I have an idea that will give you a perfect opportunity to get the wand." Seeing that he had their total attention, Charles started telling everyone his plan.

Harry's eyes widened when he heard the convoluted plan and immediately agreed to go through with it. While it was quite risky, he believed he could pull it off with Elena's help. "Can you make it happen, though?"

Charles scoffed at the question, "Of course, I can make it happen. I will just have to call in some favors so that Dumbledore doesn't interfere with it."

Harry gave a nod before his face broke into a large grin. "I almost forgot to tell you, the Noble House of Malfoy will become a vassal of The House of Slytherin in the near future."

Everyone immediately understood what has happened and their faces broke into similar grins; Charles and Salazar because they knew that it will make things easier in future for Harry, Daphne because both male Malfoys were insufferable pricks.

"Did you duel already?" Salazar asked.

"No, it's in the evening."

"You know what to do. Make sure that everyone understands what happens to those who oppose us of the House of Slytherin. Show them the strength of the descendant of the great Salazar Slytherin."Salazar ordered pompously.

Harry chuckled at his ancestor's hubris but nodded all the same.

Oh yes, he was going to show them what it meant to mess with him.

* * *

 **A.N : Sorry it took so long to post this chapter. To be honest, I was sitting on this chapter for more than a month. It took me a while before I found this chapter satisfactory enough to post. Hope you guys enjoy it. If you find any error or plothole, please point it out in the review or send me a pm. I am also open for any suggestions, whether it is to improve my writing or the story. Err...I couldn't decide what should I name this chapter, so if you guys have any suggestion pm me. I will give you the full credit for the heading if I like it.**

 **Thanks to Falconette360 and SapphireDragonis.**

 **Special Thanks to my betareader BattlemageABK.**

 **Reviews are welcome while Flames will be ignored.**

 **Speaking of Flames, One of my most favorite writers on this website, Yagami Nguyen, decided to stop writing because he was flamed a lot for the latest chapter of one of his fics. I hope he decides to write again.**

 **I just don't get it why do you guys(flamers) waste your time in flaming. It's not like we writers get anything from posting stories and we don't owe you anything. So, if you don't like anything then don't read it. Too many good writers stop writing because people didn't like something and start flaming without caring about the time they spent writing it for the readers. Sigh...I will stop here, no need to bore you guys with my rant. It's just that I am annoyed that another good writer stopped writing.**

 **On the Brighter side,**

 **HAPPY NEW YEAR!**


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